


Wrong Place, Wrong Time

by Fox_155



Series: NosferaCT - A Symphony Of Chaos (NCT Vampire AU) [6]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Manipulation, Eventual Smut, Forced Prostitution, Happy Ending, Homophobia, M/M, Minor Character Death, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Past Drug Addiction, Past Relationship(s), Time Skips, cameos from other groups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-09-24 17:37:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 56,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17105102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_155/pseuds/Fox_155
Summary: If you looked up the definition of “bad luck”, there should be an honorary mention of Nakamoto Yuta somewhere below the definition. Maybe under the headliner “famous examples”. Preferably with a picture of his handsome face, though even the thought made Kun’s voice echo through his head “No permanent images anywhere you can’t take them down from, it causes nothing but trouble with the humans, when you don’t age”.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the people and this story isn't by any means an accurate representation of the people by whom it is inspired by.  
>   
> This is set in Japan and Seoul, South Korea, but with some creative freedom. I'm not using honorifics, because it'd get super-messy with all the vampires. Since this is in English, I also don't think they're actually needed. :)  
>   
> This is part of a series and I strongly recommend reading [Four Is My Lucky Number](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185717/chapters/35217482#workskin) to understand this better.  
>   
> So, this was on my hard drive, untouched for months. I started writing this right after I finished TBDIS, but didn’t like how it turned out and actually looked back into it, because of a comment, asking for Yuwin’s story. So here we are. This will have time jump(?s), but I think it’s easy to follow, giving you the background story for Yuta~  
>   
> This takes place parallel to 4IMLN (in parts), let’s hope there’s no consistency problems ^^;  
>   
> Please check the tags.  
> If you are interested in the other parts, check the series for the timeline. :)
> 
> TW: violence and death

If you looked up the definition of “bad luck”, there should be an honorary mention of Nakamoto Yuta somewhere below the definition. Maybe under the headliner “famous examples”. Preferably with a picture of his handsome face, though even the thought made Kun’s voice echo through his head “No permanent images anywhere you can’t take them down from, it causes nothing but trouble with the humans, when you don’t age”.

Still, everyone deserved to see his beautiful smile, so the photo really wasn’t even for himself, but for the benefit of the people, who were in the sad position to look up “bad luck” in the first place.

It, quite frankly, started the day he was born and that was no dramatic over-exaggeration, thank you Ten. Yuta was born the same day his father died. In the morning, his mother had cried tears of happiness, holding her youngest son in her arms, by noon, she had cried because her husband had succumbed to the injuries he had brought home from battel.

A small rebellion, something the army should have been able to squash easily. Classic bad luck, that his father would get so badly injured, that he wouldn’t survive it.

So, Yuta’s life started off with the mourning period for his father. Two years of rituals, praying and tears, instead of laughter and happiness in his home.

Not that that had rubbed off on Yuta. He grew up to be a pretty cheerful boy. He arranged himself with his new father and the children he brought from his first marriage, despite the house being a bit too small for this many people. He pushed through school, despite having trouble keeping still for so long and finding the teachers’ lessons dreadfully boring. 

Well, maybe it was not completely normal to break your arm three times before even reaching the age of 12. But it was fine, a little crooked, but Yuta used it to impress other kids. After all, no one else could bend their lower arm like this!

And then, puberty came, and Yuta started to realise that where his friends read love poems that were not made for innocent children’s eyes and discussed, which of the girls that lived in the streets they had to walk through to get to school was the pretties, he developed a very serious crush on a handsome upperclassman. At first, he thought it was really neat, because where the boys had to secretly steal glances and wouldn’t even be allowed within 10 metres of their adored, he got to spend afternoon debate classes with his subject of affection, so really, he was the one winning at life.

It turned out, other people didn’t share his take on liking boys, but Yuta wasn’t really bothered. His close friends told him it didn’t matter, his sister told him, it didn’t matter, so, it didn’t matter, end of story. 

Only it kind of did. Because when he was sixteen, being just his luck, the people who were bothered by him liking boys, found him and his boyfriend making out quite… shamelessly after lessons. Behind the trees in the park, where they had always been safe from stares. Yuta had always taken more classes on literature and found fun in arguing with people using words, rather than his fists, so there wasn’t much he could do, other than to take the beating.

At least he didn’t break his arm this time. You didn’t even need a cast for broken ribs, they’d just heal on their own, super handy. 

His step-father didn’t find it quite as brilliant, and he found the reason for his bullying even less amusing. So, Yuta had to sit through a lecture that felt like it stretched on forever, his mother sitting in the corner quietly, not even looking at him. Thought, that wasn’t because she had just found out he was gay. His mother never looked at him. Yuta didn’t know why, because she looked at his sister, but it was probably because of his father. It was silly, because he was often told how he was basically the male version of her. But it was fine. He wanted her to be happy, so if she couldn’t bear looking at him, because it made her sad, so be it.

Yuta found the lecture quite a waste of time, really, because his step father went on and on about him having to marry and being with men staining his reputation and not being how nature intended humans to be, because they wouldn’t have children. He closed off with ordering him to break things off with his boyfriend, which Yuta nodded to and absolutely planned not to do. Not like he’d know… and he couldn’t forbid him from talking to other men, like he forbad all the girls of the household. 

But, unfortunately, his boyfriend wasn’t as carefree and rebellions towards his parents, so Yuta found himself with his first heartbreak, quietly sniffing in the quiet of the night, so no one would know.

As time heals all wounds, so did Yuta’s heart and he happily found himself a new boyfriend a few months later. His step-father, on the other hand, had started looking very eagerly for a fitting fiancé to marry him off to as soon he would finish his education at the age of 20. Yuta tried to complain, but to no avail, so he just turned up on his worst behaviour to the meetings with the parents. 

They weren’t of extremely high class, not poor either, just a middle thing. But seeing how his father wanted to marry him to a girl from an equal background and most parents tried to marry their daughter off better, lacking manners and respect was a safe way to get himself kicked out of any considerations for marriage faster than one could say “his majesty the emperor of Japan”.

That worked until his step-father decided that he wasn’t below cuffing an 18-year-old’s ears. Yuta hated, no, despised even, pain and finally gave in and put on a pretty smile for the parents they met. That did the job just fine. Yuta was perfectly aware that he was good-looking and it made adults much more willing to look past the lack of status and money, if their daughter would at least get a handsome husband out of it.

Her name was Hina and she was very sweet, from what Yuta could tell. It wasn’t like he had much to go off, because her parents apparently weren’t going to let him closer to her than across the huge table with half the household watching, making petty conversation over the weather and currently blooming flowers once a month. To build up a relationship. It was hilarious.

His graduation was more like a side-event, which was probably because his grades in half the subjects weren’t something to brag about. Many teachers didn’t appreciate his brilliant insights he loved to offer even without having to be asked for them first and numbers had never become Yuta’s friends, so there was that. 

For once in his life, Yuta had good luck, because he wasn’t the oldest son, and not the biological one of his step-father, so he wouldn’t have to take over the business and was allowed to take up a job in the emperor’s delegation. 

Too bad his boyfriend wasn’t impressed, when Yuta told him about the marriage that was supposed to take place in three months and here Yuta found himself, in the bar at the edge of the town, the place where everyone knew you shouldn’t go, trying to down his sorrows in Sake.

“You’re looking a bit down there.”

Two big men sat down next to Yuta on one chair. Fascinating. It seemed like they were sitting in each other, how did that work? Oh, wait, now there were two chairs…

“Allz zupe grayt.” Yuta grinned lopsidedly and raised his glass, feeling the liquid swap over his hands. What a waste…

“You want some extra fun? You look like you could use a little pick-me-up.”

Oh yes, Yuta could use a little pick-me-up, a big one even! He was still feeling like crying, maybe a bit like throwing up, too?

The man put a little pill in his hand and grinned encouragingly, while Yuta wondered, where the other one had gone. Maybe there was only one to begin with? They had looked exactly the same…

“Just wash it down with the Sake. Double the fun, am I right?”

So, Yuta did. 

For the books, he considered this day the day with the worst luck of his life.

 

Addiction was an ugly thing. I made you disregard what was actually important to you, it made you ignore that you hadn’t eaten in two days, on the search for more, more and more. You’d ignore the throat-cutting prices the people asked from you. Money ran through Yuta’s fingers like water, until it was all used up, until he had so much debt, the limit was hit, until his dealer waited for him with two huge guys, only two days before the marriage date, who said he had used up all their kindness and it was time to pay up or see his family get harmed.

So, Yuta left with a letter for his sister, for his best friend and for Hina, hoping they’d believe his lies. If they wouldn’t, they could resent him, he didn’t care. All he cared about was, that he was getting his pills for free now.

Looking back, things had been going sour for the three months leading up to this, but Yuta hadn’t noticed, of course he hadn’t.

Working at the bar he was put at seemed fun at first. He had never been to Tokyo and had never seen people like those coming to the bar: big men with tattoos, men with Western clothing, golden watches, shiny shoes. That was until the first night he got booked for “Room Service”. No amount of pills would make having to spread his legs for a stranger that could be his father fun. 

Yuta found himself very reluctant to keep working. But he had debt with the gang the men who were running the bar were from. Debt because of these damn pills, that he couldn’t stop taking, despite realising, what they had brought upon him. He was stuck in a vicious circle, only now he was aware he was stuck, but didn’t know how to get out of it, which was actually worse, than being ignorant of your problems.

 

“You need to eat more. Your face is starting to look to bony, no one wants to fuck a skeleton.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Oh sorry, did it sound like a question? That was an order you are to follow, Nakamoto. You eat more, or I’ll cut you down on Morphine.”

“Fine, then I can leave this hell place.”

A slap echoed through the small room. “You are 200 grand in debt with us. Even if you stop eating pills like candy, you’ll still be stacking up more. You’re ours and you’ll be probably until the end of your days, which will be sooner, rather than later. So eat this rice or I will shove it down your throat.”

Yuta closed his eyes and picked up the bowl, obediently starting to eat it.

He fully expected his life to just end like this. It had been almost a year of the same procedure every day, every night, the only thing that changed was the amount of Morphine it took him to get through it. Sometimes, he took one extra, just because it was funny, how his body would lose all feeling. His arm, the bent one, had been a bit sensitive all his life, but these days, it felt like it wasn’t even part of him anymore.

His hair had lost all its shine, his skin felt like paper and when he woke up in the morning, the dose of drugs in his system low, he hurt all-over. That was why he couldn’t stop taking the pills.

 

But all came to a screeching halt, when a young woman set foot into the bar. 

No matter how different the people living in Tokyo were compared to his hometown Osaka, their women were still treated like treasures. Save for the few unlucky girls that served in the bar next to Yuta and some other boys, of course. Other than them, Yuta had never seen a woman in this house or in the streets. 

She was dressed in a heavily embroidered Kimono, that spoke of wealth, status and traditional values, but her hair was flowing over her back, only tied up in a pony tail and she didn’t bother hiding her face behind a fan, how his fiancé had used to, or his sister had been trained to, whenever she was with men that she wasn’t directly related to.

Not matter how strange her appearance, she was still a woman, small and vulnerable and Yuta worried why she was even here. Hopefully not, because she needed a little pick-me-up?

“Excuse me? I’m looking for… Hashimoto-san?” she read off her hand, blinking at the girl closest to her. Yuta shuddered at the mention of the name alone, hand traveling to the inside of his upper arm, where the tattoo sat, that marked him as his property. Why would she get close to him voluntarily? She must be out of her mind. Or maybe she just didn’t know how bad his strikes hurt without leaving any traces, when he didn’t want them to.

He was about to tell her to turn around and leave while she still could, but their boss must have heard and barged through the backdoor. Those customers who hadn’t already been leering after the woman, like the lowlifes they were, were definitely also looking now. 

A snort left the man’s lips, cueing howling and whistling from the men lingering in the room. Some waved their glasses, some made suggestive comments, wiggling their eyebrows.

“Hashimoto-San?” the woman’s voice was endlessly calm, as was her face, the picture of perfect relaxation. “A bird tweeted me, you stole something very dear to me.”

“I don’t need any crazy bitches coming to my bar. Listen, girl, I didn’t steal any necklace or ring or whatever it is you’re missing, maybe your manners, looking at you. Now, if you aren’t interested in anything I sell here, leave, or I will make you.”

That was his favourite sentence. Yuta stiffened where he was sitting in the lap of one of the guys who kept coming back for him. 

“Oh, this oughta be good!” he heard men whisper. 

“You’ll make me? Oh, I would love to see that. Do you think I couldn’t handle a fat, old man like you?” her voice dripped of sweetness, contradicting her words and her still calm expression. Yuta shivered. Maybe she was insane? That’d explain how she was dressed any why she was talking like this. “Now, I want you to bring me Hirai-Chan and I’ll leave without doing you any harm. Doesn’t that sound like a good deal?”

Yuta knew who she was referring to, a girl that had come three days ago, sold by her parents, because she was “damaged goods” and “a disgrace”. He was getting an idea what that meant, seeing this woman ask for her and referring to her as something dear to her.

“A good deal? Girl, you drank too much sake before coming. If you want, I can offer you the room next to Momo. Where there’s a warm hole to fill, men can look past the crazy.” The boss cackled and it was echoed by the men in the room. Yuta felt a hand rub over his crotch. He tried to not feel sick at the thought, that some of these men got off of what was happening right before their eyes.

Not like the rubbing on his dick did anything for him.

Without another word, the woman reached over the counter and grabbed onto the boss’ arm and a second later, she had yanked him over it, thrown him over her shoulder and he was flat on the ground.

A gasp went through the audience. Yuta saw some men leave subtly and he definitely saw hands reaching into pockets to retrieve whatever weapons they were illegally carrying.

He wanted to slip into the back, together with the other girls and boys, who were serving, but the arm around his waist and the hand on his crotch kept him in place, right in the middle of where shit was going to go down.

“I. Want. Hirai. Momo.” The woman’s voice was cold now, cutting through the silence. 

“You’re a fucking nutcase, that’s what you are!” the boss tried to get back up, but with one kick, he was back on the ground, kept there by the foot on his throat. 

The woman looked around the room and Yuta swore, her eyes were shining red.

“Well, since this idiot isn’t giving me what I want, who can in his stead? Or maybe I should just end all your sad existences right here and now. Society will be better without all you criminals, anyway.”

Yuta closed his eyes, but failed to feel fear. Actually… it sounded quite promising… for it all to end. No one would miss him, anyway. He heard the gurgling sound of someone choking and a second later, all hell broke loose.

He managed to hide under the table, as his patrol let go of him. There were gunshots, screams, furniture sliding over the ground and a chair hit him in the back painfully. He lost balance and fell from underneath the safety of his hide-out, only to witness the destruction, that had gone on within the span of minutes. There were bodies littered all over the bar, blood staining the wood of the tables, chairs and the floor. 

Some of the men were on each other’s throats, while the woman was finishing off attackers with just a push of her hand. He didn’t feel the pain from the bullet gone astray, that pierced itself through his shoulder, only the pressure from it breaking through skin, muscle and bone. 

Yuta stared at it, where blood immediately started to ruin his clothing. Where was the heart again? Was this going to kill him? He poked a finger into the liquid and stared at the bright red colour.

“Urgh, what are you doing, idiot, you were hidden so well!”

It was the woman, suddenly close to him, and she pulled Yuta up by his arm, like he weighed nothing, dragging him towards the back door. Everything started to melt into each other, voices turning into burry nothingness, his vision starting to turn black on the sides. He felt more pressure on his shoulder.

“Open up!”

Yuta opened his mouth, the words like a command burnt in his mind, that immediately resulted in a reflexive reaction, after having heard it so many time. But even to his foggy brain, the arm that was pushed between his teeth seemed… weird. That wasn’t the norm! Something tasted metallic on his tongue and Yuta swallowed on command just as well.

“Before you hit the dust, sweety, can you try and help me find Momo-Chan?”

“Hirai? Hm yeah.” Yuta sluggishly moved towards the stairs.

“Right in here? Fucking hell, it could have been so easy.” The woman muttered, steadying Yuta be his arm. He didn’t make it to the top, his vision going back and body limp.

The last thing he thought of was, that he meant to apologise to his sister, personally, and his best friend. But now, he couldn’t. But he also didn’t have to continue this life anymore.

 

Yuta woke with a gasp, trying to fill his lungs with air, but the relief of getting oxygen into his system never came.

He looked around frantically, not recognising anything around himself. This wasn’t the bar, it wasn’t his room, it also wasn’t his family’s home or the supply closet he and his boyfriend liked to hide in. He tried to remember the last night, but all he came up with, was the dream about the woman marching into the bar and everyone starting to kill each other off. Right, he had also died in his dream. Well, it had only been a dream, after all, because here he was. Was it bad, that that came as a disappointment?

The room wasn’t big, but clean, with paper windows and a soft pink futon. Yuta smelled flowers, like someone had spilled a bucket of perfume, but only found a small vase with three roses in the corner. The birds outside were chirping at deafening volume and Yuta started to get annoyed.

Maybe, he had taken too many pick-me-ups again last night and blacked out, when a client had taken him somewhere else for “Room Service”? It was only weird because normally the boss never let them leave, not matter how much money was offered.

Yuta looked down on himself and found an off-white Kimono from soft silk. Well, he definitely also never had worn something like this before and a client dressing him seemed unlikely. So what on earth was going on? 

Yuta stood up from his futon and the next thing he noticed was, how his body felt… it felt good. Not as aching and heavy, as it normally did, before he took something for breakfast. Yuta waved his arms, feeling energy flood him, the desire to run, to exhaust himself, to… smile. He hadn’t felt that in a year. Over a year. Ever since his boyfriend broke up and he had made the decisions in life he regretted the most. He didn’t blame his ex, it was all on him.

He stretched his arms in front of him. The formerly broken arm didn’t hurt, not at all and Yuta looked closer. Not only didn’t it hurt… but it was straight. Like his other arm, like a perfectly healthy arm…

Oh. So, this was a dream!

Yuta wondered what he could do, while he was here and feeling better than in forever. So he tried the walls, until he found a sliding door. He stepped up into the elevated hallway, the dark wooden floor warm under his feet. There were voices coming from the end of it and Yuta decided to just go and see what would happen.

Before he had even taken three steps, a door was yanked open and the woman he had dreamt of before stepped out, a short yukata on. Well, apparently, he was very impressed by her, whoever she was, that he dreamt of her twice…

“Ah, I thought I heard you! Did you sleep well? How are you feeling? You look as good as new to me.” She beamed, hopping around him. This certainly wasn’t how she had behaved in his first dream.

“I feel good, really good. Where am I? I’m still dreaming, right?” Yuta looked around, but they were surrounded by paper windows, that didn’t let him look past.

“Ah, yes, it might feel like that at first, but no, you’re awake now. I think introductions are over-due. My name is Myoui Mina. And you are?”

“Nakamoto Yuta.” Yuta bowed slightly. He didn’t know any Myoui Minas, but the brain could come up with weird things while sleeping. 

“Nice to meet you, is it fine, if we go straight to being friendly in our addressing? I hope we can become good friends, soon, anyway, and it feels less stiff.” Mina cheerfully asked. Yuta nodded, not seeing any fault in being friends with his imaginary-dream-person. Maybe he had come up with her as a friend, because he was lacking one so badly in his real life?

“Alright, Yuta-kun, let’s go and sit down for a little chat, we have lots to catch up with.” 

 

“A vampire?”

“Yes. I’m really sorry, I didn’t anticipate you getting hurt, when you were the one person that didn’t deserve it. And I’m sorry I didn’t ask you in advance, but there wasn’t any time left.” Mina looked remorseful. Yuta nodded blankly but decided to just go with it. It was a dream, what harm would there be?

“It’s okay, I feel great, actually, better than in a long time, so I’d have to thank you.”

“That’s good to hear, that you’re feeling better, that is. Well, and I hope we can get along well, I never had a mentee, but I’ll try my very best to be a good teacher!” Mina pumped her fist up. 

“You live here alone?” Yuta asked. He hadn’t seen much of the house yet, but it looked quite spacious.

“I used to, yes, but now Momo-Chan lives here, too, and you, of course.” She nodded and Yuta felt warm fondness over being included. “You don’t mind that, do you? Me liking women? Because if you do, I might have smaller qualms about still ending your life.” Mina smiled much too brightly for her words. 

“No, no, no, it’s all good, I’m the same, well no, but I like men. It’s what got me there in the first place.”

“Oh, you served men there, too?” Mina gasped, eyes wide. “How awful! They would never accept any gay man, yet, they use you for their own pleasure? I want to go back and kill them all over.”

“That’s uh, no, I got there because…” should he really tell his pathetic life-story? Well, yes, she was his imaginary-dream-friend, so she had to listen! “I was engaged to a girl, so my boyfriend broke up with me, which led to me deciding it was justifiable to start taking – uh – drugs.”

Mina nodded, face understanding and free of judgement. It felt like a weight had gotten lifted off his shoulders and Yuta finally relaxed fully. He hadn’t even been here for a day, and it already felt like it could become a home, a home, where he was accepted as he was.

“So you worked for him to pay off your own debt.” Mina concluded.

“That and to keep the supply. You know… I haven’t not felt the urge to take something to numb myself in over a year. Now I don’t, which is a nice change.” Only it’d be gone the moment he woke up, yearning for relief.

“Well, the turning is like a reset for your body to its original, healthiest state. What exactly that is, differs from person to person. Your metabolism couldn’t handle pills anymore, but there’s other things to get addicted to, so you’re not free from that. But I will help you, so you don’t fall into that trap again, if you let me.”

“Is that why my arm’s all normal?” Yuta asked, staring at it again.

“What do you mean?”

“I broke my arm as a child, several times, it ended up being a bit crooked, but now it’s not anymore.”

“Oh, yes. Scars, too, even tattoos… all gone.”

Yuta’s head jerked up, then, he frantically pulled up the sleeve of his Kimono, searching the inside of his arm for the dreadful Kanji inked into his skin – but didn’t find them. A scream of happiness escaped his lips and he jumped up to hug Mina, who startled in surprise, but hugged back after a second of confusion.

“I mean it, when I say, thank you.”

 

It was a dream Yuta didn’t want to end, but he knew he wouldn’t live in forever. He’d wake up in his room, sticky from the fluids of the night before, desperate for his fix.

Weirdly enough, the next day, Yuta woke up in the pretty room again, birds chirping obnoxiously loud, the roses smelling stronger than what would be normal. He pinched himself.

“Ouch, fucking hell…” 

So it wasn’t a dream then? Yuta laid still, trying to recall what Mina had told him the day before. He didn’t have to breathe, which felt weird, so he started doing it again, despite not feeling the effect. His heart was still in his chest, yet he could feel everything as normal, maybe even better than before. He could heart, see, smell, all a bit better than what he remembered. Only his heart didn’t beat anymore.

And he felt energised. Happy, naturally happy, how he had all his life prior to getting off his path.

So, maybe, this really was a new start, a new chance. And who would Yuta be to turn it down?

 

It took him a few years to master his newly found powers. A few years of small, harmless mishaps, during which he learnt how to bewitch a person and make them whatever he wanted them to, even stab their friends or allies in a bar, if he so told them. Momo let him train on herself. He learnt how to bite someone without spilling blood absolutely everywhere or accidentally killing them by blood-loss, and as a side-effect acquired some neat seduction-skills that worked without even having to get into someone’s head.

After World War I had passed, Mina decided she wanted to travel the world. So, they went to see Europe, Paris, Rome, London, Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam. Blood tasted the same anywhere in the world, so when extreme nationalism started to rise, the three of them boarded a ship back to Asia. Yuta didn’t like war, he didn’t like fighting, especially over things such as where you were from, it seemed pointless to him. No one decided where they were born, so why would it make some people better than others?

But the leaders of Japan didn’t share his peaceful mindset.

 

“I don’t like it. The Allies have been bombing Germany since last year. What if they do the same here?” Yuta stared at the newspaper. 

“Don’t be silly. They know they don’t have a chance against the Kamikaze.” Momo shook her head. “And besides, we have to stick together as a nation.”

“That won’t help anybody.” Yuta stared at the news from the colonies. Things didn’t look that much brighter over there, people having to work their hands to the bone for the empire.

“Yuta, you’re your own person. If you’d rather not stay in the capital.” Mina gestured at the paper “I have a friend in the colony of Korea. You could stay with her for a while, I’m sure.”

Yuta took two weeks to think it over. He had been with Mina and Mom for 39 years now. He was used to them, they were used to him, everything was going well and he liked his life. But he also had this hunch, that something was going to happen, something big. He knew not to trust the news, he wasn’t born yesterday, no matter how much they wrote about the successes the Axis powers supposedly celebrated, it was obvious that the country was starting to run low of resources after years of war.

Maybe this was a sign, that there was more in store for him, than life with a lesbian immortal couple. His own better half, for example. He might be waiting in the colony. 

So, Yuta packed those of his belonging he couldn’t part from and boarded a boat to Korea. The fact that his favourite leather jacket from France was stolen on his way there should have been sign enough, that his good-luck streak had been used up. But he was sure he was doing the right thing, so a minor set-back didn’t stop him.

 

Seoul was… not what he had expected. He knew the Japanese thought themselves the kings of Korea, but seeing how run down the city was, made Yuta see, how wrong this was. The friend of Mina was called Park Jimin, a girl with a round face and a pretty smile, who had lived in Seoul since 1850, because she got bored of travelling so much.

It was the first time, Yuta dove into illegal night life since the time at the bar. Mina had never lead them anywhere the Yakuza did their dirty work and Yuta was grateful for that. He had closed that chapter of his life and didn’t want to ever open it again. But in Seoul, there was no legal night life and the illegal one wasn’t drugs and prostitution, but just young people having fun and speaking Korean, which was forbidden.

It was new, different, fun and thrilling. Yuta definitely went more often than he had to, learning the basics of the forbidden language. He liked flirting, even when he didn’t have to drink. If you were so supressed in your life, you seemed to be more willing to take risks to have fun. Risks like flirting with other men.

 

“Your Korean sounds worse than mine!” Yuta turned around, seeing a short man smile at him, revealing a row of perfect teeth, his eyes crunching up a little. “We should be friends, don’t you think? My name’s Ten.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The YuWin sequel is here, ah, I really hope it’ll live up to expectations. I literally would have never expected people to ask me for stories because they like my writing. Updating may or may not take longer than normal, because my life is such a mess right now and inspiration is a fickle thing – which is also the only reason why I have two stories going on at the same time, which I’d normally not do. I don’t want to neglect either, but sometimes I can’t think of how to continue one, and write the other instead~


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you got a notification yesterday, it wasn’t some glitch, but my personal stupidity, because I uploaded to the wrong work, sorry for that!

Yuta stared at the television screen, seeing, but not comprehending the girls on the screen waving around plastic toys to fight of the most ridiculous monsters the PreCure franchise had ever come up with. He wasn’t sure, if he had seen this episode before, but probably yes at this point.

It wasn’t that Yuta didn’t have anything better to do, because he really would prefer something like hiking up to the Namsan Tower and look over Seoul, or maybe walk down Han river as far as he could get.

The problem was: he couldn’t. Because Nakamoto Yuta’s infamous bad luck had lurked up on him – yet again. Okay, maybe, perhaps, he had been just a tiny bit reckless and not paid attention to who he was trying to get it on with. But the guy had been fucking hot! And Yuta might have had a cocktail too much.

Long story short… Yuta had tried to impress a Hunter with his fangs. The dumbest thing anyone had ever done in the history of vampires, he was aware that and if he was about to forget, Ten was there to kindly remind him. On a daily basis. With friends like him, you definitely didn’t need enemies. 

Yuta still loved him dearly.

The Hunters were a very annoying bunch of entitled pricks, Department four of the Seoul Police, whose mission in life it was, to kill off any super natural being – so, vampires and werewolves. The first time he had heard of them, Yuta had sent Mina a long and confused letter, asking if there was anything like that in Japan, and she had told him they were all over the world, but really no threat.

Maybe at some point, the South Korean Hunters hadn’t been a threat, either, but with the borders closed off so tightly, not even a bat could pass without a passport check, and technology working in every police department’s favour, they were a real problem for Yuta and his coven, as well as all the other covens in Seoul.

Which was why there were such strict rules in place that all vampires had to stick to, controlled by the so-called Queens of Seoul, an all-female coven of nine, which were mostly pretty ancient and rather intimidating.

They’d probably be none too happy if they knew about Yuta’s… mishap. But lucky for him, his coven leader was a kind-hearted man with a soft spot for collecting idiots, as evident by literally every member, other than the man himself. Kun truly was an angel…

Still, Yuta was in their files now, with a picture and everything from the surveillance, as the owner of the bar had informed him, just as a heads up. It was nice of Kris, but it would have been even nicer to not give the police his surveillance footage in the first place. Something about having to protect his pack and keep a low profile.

Whatever, now he was stuck, grounded in the flat he shared with Ten, only able to go for small trips with his face hidden behind a facemask and maybe sunglasses, if you could get away with them and not look like an idiot. But there was only so much Shonen anime you could watch without getting as aggressive as the characters on screen, so Magical Girls Anime it was.

But the part where he was stuck inside wasn’t even the biggest problem. Super annoying, yes, but the thing that drove Yuta to insanity was, that while he was stuck inside, some psycho was raging in Seoul, leaving tracks that pointed right to the covens living peacefully in the city and pulling the Hunters’ attention towards them. 

Yuta groaned and rolled over, as good won, yet again. A shocking end to a thrilling episode. If you were three years old. The lock beeped and someone slammed the door open. Yuta contemplated, if he should try and get whoever had come home to have a conversation with him.

“Hey Yuta, do you think I could use your blender to make drinkable hamburgers?” 

He rose his head a bit and glanced towards the hallway, where Lucas had shown up. “Yeah. If it works, I want one, too.”

“Neat. I watched some YouTube video where they did that. You can just use ketchup to make it more liquid.” Lucas waved the paper bag with the big, yellow M on it, he had brought, the smell immediately spreading in the living room. 

It sounded absolutely disgusting. “But you have to promise to clean the blender to perfection after. I need it for my smoothies.”

“Yeah, no worries, it’ll look better than new once I’m finished.” Lucas promised, disappearing into the kitchen.

Yuta wondered, if he should try to use the Your Tube map or whatever that shit was called on his phone again, to watch videos, like Lucas. But he was glad he was able to send texts and even that was a regular struggle. So, no, he was just going to switch to some mindless drama on the tv, while waiting for the younger vampire to finish whatever mess he was making. The TV only had one remote and Yuta was confident in using it. 

The blender went off in the distance. Yuta stared out the dark window. A few seconds later, he decided this was just too boring, and got up to look at the hamburger-drinks.

“How’s it going?”

“Well…” Lucas looked up from the blender. “I mean, Rome wasn’t built over night.”

“That looks more than questionable. Maybe you should have just bought milkshakes?” 

“But I haven’t had a burger in forever! I want one.” Lucas complained and poured more ketchup into the glass container. 

The brown mess turned a bit redder and Yuta watched in fascination. He knew where Lucas was coming from. He was a relatively newly turned, seven vampire-years old to be precise. For the first decades, Yuta had sometimes craved regular food, too. Well, not only craved, but also eaten, because he had zero self-control. The throwing up had sometimes been worth it. 

“I don’t think this is going to go liquid if you don’t add water or something.” Yuta commented, as Lucas tapped the glass to the side and the mess inside extremely slowly started moving, like it was Hamburger-jelly, rather than Hamburger-drinks.

“It’ll be disgusting, though… right?”

Yuta and Lucas exchanged glances and then took a glass to get water and add it.

 

“What on earth did you shred today?”

Ten stared at the glasses Yuta and Lucas had clinked just a second earlier. Yuta had a straw and a small paper umbrella in his.

“Hamburgers.” Lucas beamed “And it tastes somewhat okay!”

“I deeply regret I asked. I saw Taeil today, asked if he knew something about our rogue, but unfortunately, nothing.”

Ten flopped on the sofa, making it move so much, that Yuta’s liquid burger almost swapped over the glass, but he managed to save it, using his fast reflexes.

“Okay, whatever, Yuta, can I give that a try? How bad can it be?”

 

In Yuta’s opinion spitting the whole mouthful out over his TVXQ T-Shirt had been a dramatic overreaction, but Ten begged to differ.

 

A loud crash from the living room jerked Yuta awake in the middle of the night. With the threat of getting found out by the hunters every day hovering over their heads, he was on his feet in the blink of an eye. Ten had already burst from his room, darting towards the living room, Yuta following him close behind. 

The balcony door flew open, and Ten had the dark figure looming on it pinned down in the blink of an eye. Yuta stayed on the threshold, eying the guy that… happily greeted Ten, apparently knowing him. Well, regardless, that was extremely suspicious, some stranger turning up at their flat in the middle of the night. Even if he was… super… handsome… with an elegant face, definitely tall, from what he could tell… wow, how did such a handsome specimen land on their balcony? And he was talking in a voice surprisingly deep, but very smooth.

Yuta snapped out of it, when the stranger’s eyes landed on him, and Ten turned towards him a second later. Shit, had someone asked a question?

“That’s Yuta, he’s my coven-mate. Yuta, this is Sicheng, he’s like almost 2,000 years old, and I had no idea he wasn’t in China right now.” 

Yuta almost let out a surprised squeak. 2,000 years? That was incredible. He always used Mina as his standard for old vampires, who was a bit over 400 this year. But this guy was five times as old. Ten let go of Sicheng, who elegantly got off the ground and bowed to Yuta, who scrambled to return the gesture.

“How about we go inside, shall we?” Ten came towards Yuta, who suddenly remembered that Sicheng may be an acquaintance, or friend, or whatever, to Ten, and ridiculously handsome and dreamy and… yeah, but he was still a suspicious stranger.

“Wait, how do we know he’s harmless?” There was no point in trying to keep his voice low, because a vampire, especially one so old, would be able to hear.

“I’ll vouch for him. Definitely.” Ten turned back to he now smiling vampire and wow, he really was tall, not only compared to Ten, who even made Taeyong look tall. 

Yuta wondered, what the chances were, that this stunning, amazing person was leaning towards men in any way. Gay, bi, pan… something.

 

Yuta definitely believed in love at first sight, and in something like soulmates. A person, that fit and complimented you so perfectly, you’d want to spend eternity with them. 

He saw it in Mina and Momo, and he saw it in his current coven, with Jaehyun and Taeyong, who had been almost disgustingly in love for over twenty years. 

But those two didn’t necessarily have to be a package deal. You could love someone for only some time, too. Yuta had definitely been in love before, as a human and as a vampire, he had been in relationships and he had suffered heart-break. That was the ugly part and it never got easier. But that didn’t mean that he’d ever want to stop loving people. 

And Yuta was safe to say, that Sicheng had stolen his heart within an hour flat. It wasn’t only, that he was beautiful, on the edge between pretty and handsome, with doe eyes and a friendly smile. But he was nothing short of adorable. 

Personally, Yuta had never lost track of time. He was a bit too young for that, too. But Kun and Ten had told him about how days just blended into each other and before you knew it, two decades had passed. He had sort of expected that to happen, now that he was stuck inside, but it apparently was harder for that to happen, if you were in a coven, especially one so closely knit as theirs. 

Sicheng had lost track of time for… a long time. Before the war, to be precise. He was very confused by everything, including the writing system, since Korea had been using Japan’s letters while being a colony.

He was baffled by the TV, by Jaehyun’s phone, by Ten’s laptop, by Yuta’s smoothie blender, by the fashion, by the music… you name it, Sicheng was confused about it. Yet, he didn’t make a fuzz about it. After a moment of being upset, he had been in a brilliant mood, eagerly soaking up all information they offered.

 

“You press the brick and the picture lights up?” Sicheng’s eyes darted between the remote and the TV. 

“Yes. This is a smart TV, so you can choose what you want to do: watch TV, play DVDs, we have a PlayStation and an Xbox, or you can use YouTube…”

Lucas skipped through the menus and Yuta felt lost as lost as the Chinese vampire now.

“Don’t worry, neither Ten, nor me get how that works, it’s really complicated stuff the kids these days use.” Yuta chirped, snatching the remote from Lucas. 

After a short night of explaining basics, such as what had happened in politics since the forties, how Hangul worked and that there was no magic behind modern technology, he and Lucas were set to explain to the eager Sicheng how to get around in the 21st century.

“The most important and easiest parts are TV and DVD.”

“But Yuta, we have Netflix, so you can stream…”

“TV and DVD.” Yuta repeated, snarling at Lucas, before turning back to Sicheng with a beam. “TV has a variety of theatrical plays they call Dramas these days, as well as music shows and news. They can report from all around the world within seconds. It’s very comfortable. It’s basically a radio with a picture, but better.”

Sicheng’s mouth formed an o and he nodded. “Would you show me how it works?”

Yuta wanted to coo and squeeze Sicheng’s cheeks and tell him how cute he was, but it felt like that was inappropriate. So he settled with a nod and proceeded to run the vampire through the various functions of the TV that were simple enough to understand and deeply impressed the Chinese.

 

The day was like a mini-vacation, away from the looming doom of being revealed to the public. Sicheng being fascinated by even the smallest things Yuta or Lucas explained, suddenly made Yuta step back and remember how life was like without all the fancy gadgets he had grown accustomed to.

 

But reality came crashing back down, when Ten returned from his job. He worked at the dance studio, that one of the “Queens” ran. He had told them about Sicheng. It’d be reckless, irresponsible even, not to. They kept them safe, after all, especially in these unsure times, they had to work with them to make Seoul a safe place. They weren’t against it, per so, that was good news, but bad news was, that there had been more Hunters, snooping around for evidence, they hopefully wouldn’t find.

Yuta didn’t like admitting it, but he felt like he was the most worried out of all of them, with the hunters breathing down everyone’s, but especially Ten’s neck.

Ten was old and experienced. And he didn’t share his bad luck. He’d surely be fine. But still, the worry lingered, even as he tried to gloss over it, by taking the bad news quickly and then moving on to the topic of the hot guy Ten had been talking about, until the Thai disappeared to shower.

 

“I’m honestly baffled, that the Hunters are in such a powerful position here.” Sicheng said, curled up against the arm rest, the PlayStation controller, he had used earlier, discarded somewhere. Yuta nodded and frowned.

“I know we had them in some cities in China and they were quite intense, but you could easily avoid them.”

“In Hong Kong it’s actually not that different from Seoul, but with the border to Mainland open again, you can flee them and their damn registers easier than here. Because here, the border is a literal nightmare. I came here three years ago pretty much unintentionally, and they easily picked me out at immigration. I was so sure that would be it for me, because the union has their fingers in everything.” 

Lucas’s story was one of many, that made all your ideas and thoughts of travelling abroad just seem very unnecessarily risky. 

“And how did you get out?” Sicheng asked, leaning towards Lucas a little, like his hearing wasn’t so good he could listen in to the people downstairs on the streets.

“I didn’t. Kun got me out, actually, which was really a fucking blessing for me, because he and the guys took me in.” Lucas beamed, waving his arms around. Yuta couldn’t help, but smile, too. All coven members had been added out of need, as a rescue move for the person involved, the situations more or less dire, that they came from. But all of them turned out to fit with them perfectly and Yuta would give his life for any of them in a second.

“Kun’s, like, a big fish in business. Or was, because at the moment, he’s taking a break so people forget about him and works at a flower shop. He does all kind of stuff, and he has, like, ten degrees. He’s also old.” Lucas explained “So, he was at the police station, where they were questioning me, or supposed to, because I managed to get myself somewhat out of the way, but they wouldn’t let me go and it was a full police station of… well, police, it was fucking scary and I did leave Hong Kong because of the hunters and my Korean was terrible. Anyway. Kun was there because of a guy he owed a favour and got his kid out of confinement for drug dealing and he noticed me and got me out of there just before I would have been handed over to the hunters and I’ve been living here ever since.”

“You really had luck there, didn’t you?” Sicheng agreed and Yuta internally whined at the word luck. 

“Totally did.”

“It’s quite funny to see Kun as a coven leader, I wouldn’t have expected him to settle down. I met him in the capital, in Beijing, during Emperor Yongzheng’s reign, if I recall correctly.” Yuta had no idea, when that was, and by how furiously Lucas was typing on his phone, neither did he. 

“Honestly, capitals have always attracted vampires. I mean, it’s pretty neat, because you can blend in with the masses. So, there were many, many, many of us. And most lived in covens. I did, too. Kun came to the bar my coven used to run, which is how we met, and I know he was there because he was doing business, even back then. He got a few offers to join covens, I know he had a lover from the Li coven, I don’t quite recall her name… anyway, he never accepted them, and within half a year, he was gone again. He told me, he went insane when staying in one place for too long.”

Yuta and Lucas nodded. It wasn’t discussed a lot, but they all knew, that Kun used to struggle the most with being stuck in South Korea and was the only one, who had made an attempt at leaving the country – and failed. 

When it got too much, Kun travelled the country a little, sometimes just a few days of breathing different air were enough for him. It had gotten less, too. 

“Ten, Kun and me decided to become a coven in 1946, when it became obvious we were sort of stuck here. He used to travel at least once a month, but now, it’s only every other year or so, to get away for a bit. I think his soul has actually settled, but it took time for him.”

“Oh, so it was only the three of you at first?” Sicheng blinked at Yuta, and wow, those were some doe eyes… 

“Yeah, it was Yuta, Ten, Kun, then Taeyong, then Jaehyun and, finally, me.” Lucas supplied loudly, pointing at himself “And now you! I mean, our foreigner percentage is through the roof!”

“It really is! Even between vampires! Did you decide to stick together because of that, at first?” Sicheng was definitely directing this question at Yuta, who forced himself to snap out of the trance he had fallen into since being on the receiving end of the puppy eyes. 

“Uh, yeah, actually, we did. I think vampires are generally more tolerant, as they age, but Japanese weren’t exactly popular after the colonialization ended. And I understand why. Ten had been in a coven, but he left it, because Kun and me were alone and not welcome there.”

Sicheng had scooted closer, nodding. “I don’t think I understand all that much about new history yet, but I can imagine the problematics. So you stuck together out of necessity, but stuck, because you built a friendship?”

Yuta nodded. It was very simplified, but essentially, this was it.

“Well, I’m really glad they did, because the guys are like my family now. They taught me so much stuff. Especially Yuta, he’s actually a pretty good teacher, he taught Taeyong and Jaehyun stuff, too, when they were young, and he helped me a lot with Korean, because he’s more patient than Ten and thinks less complicated than Kun, surprisingly.” Lucas boomed and Yuta felt his chest fill with pride, as Sicheng seemed impressed.

“Really? Do you think you could teach me a bit more about the hunters in Seoul then? And the… what did you call them? The queens?”

“Oh, yes, officially they’re called Taeyeon’s coven.” Lucas supplied, because he was the only one around who was an even faster talker than Yuta. 

“Are we Kun’s coven, then? Not the Qian coven?” Sicheng’s eyes darted between the two of them, confused. 

“Yes, Seoul uses a first-name basis for the names. And, of course, I can teach you more about the hunters. I can tell you everything I know. And about Taeyeon and her minions, too.” Yuta beamed. That meant private time with Sicheng, right? He could definitely show him, how capable and responsible he was then, slowly winning him over.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas break is giving me lots of time to write and I'm feeling really inspired, so here's another update.
> 
> We’re going back in time, YuWin is taking a short break, but will be back in the next chapter, while we learn more about Yuta~

Yuta sighed, as he pushed the limp bodyparty into the bag he had brought. If people just took their job as the mentors of newly turned vampires a little more seriously, this wouldn’t have to happen. Really, this wasn’t how he preferred to spend his afternoons, and lose limbs were disgusting.

“Honestly, this was such a poor choice. Who drinks 0 negative? Like… gross.” Yuta frowned and stared at his bloody hands in disgust. 

“Any normal person.” Ten deadpanned, rising to his feet. 

“Well, I am a normal person and I hate it.”

“That is still up for debate. Now shut your trap and carry, before the police, or worse, the Hunters show up here and give us hell.” Ten threw one of the bags that now contained dead person parts over his shoulder and Yuta did the same, after another deep, long suffering sigh. 

“Honestly, I do feel a bit bad for whatever poor sucker ended up shredding this dude’s neck.” Yuta mumbled, as they quickly made their way through the back streets of the city, where you could still find traces of the war, even twenty years after. This was the parts that weren’t reputable, fun to show on TV for the world to see. But it also were the parts where you could carry bloody bags and not worry all that much about anyone seeing and caring.

“I can’t believe how irresponsible some people are. You can’t just turn someone and then leave them with their hunger. I’m pretty sure the creator will face the death penalty. But yeah, poor sucker, bet he or she didn’t even know, what they were doing.” Ten agreed, wrinkling his nose.

The trip to the main house wasn’t far and soon enough they handed the bags over to a waiting Hyoyeon. She frowned at the blood stains, that had built on their way here, but shooed them off, with the words they had more important business with their coven.

Yuta wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but he wasn’t going to try and help, when he could just leave. Getting rid of bodies was necessary, but simply disgusting, because the burning flesh stank so badly. Especially when the blood wasn’t B. Well, no, even then.

 

Kills while feeding happened, if you had bad technique or too little practice. Mina had been there to teach him, but even then, there had been two mishaps shortly after he had been turned. A slip of the teeth was all it took. 

That was long past Yuta, of course. You couldn’t just waltz around and leave a trail of corpses. Not to mention, that it was a rule in Seoul: you couldn’t kill your food. Because it was too much attention. A blood drained victim was like a blinking ad in the streets for a Hunter. 

Which was why it was so important, that creators taught their newly turns well. A task that was normally easy to monitor, since it was forbidden to turn without prior allowance. Like that you could easily track which vampire belonged to which creator. 

Only, some always thought themselves above the law.

 

Yuta was definitely going to scrub his skin off, approximately the complete upper two layers, to get rid of the stench of this nasty 0 blood. Hopefully, there was hot water. If Ten had forgotten to turn on the heater again, he was going to make a scene. 

His plans got shot, when he came into their living room and there was a small person was curled up at the table, a hot tea in both hands, looking absolutely miserable.

“We’re back from… oh Kun, did you pick up a stray puppy?” Ten had bumped into Yuta, who had stopped in his tracks.

“No, Ten, I haven’t. We, as a coven, were entrusted with a new member. Guys, this is Taeyong, Taeyong, these are Ten in the back and Yuta in the front, my other two coven mates. Taeyong was illegally turned, but since he was proven to be innocent and completely un-skilled, he was spared.”

Yuta furrowed his brows, searching Kun’s face. After the war, Taeyeon’s coven hat put laws into action and started enforcing them so cruelly, that everyone in the city decided to simply bow to the nine women. Yuta agreed they did some good, but their methods were rather brutal and the number of times they had spared someone could be counted on one hand. 

“Hello.” The small guy – Taeyong – whispered, voice deep and rough, which was unexpected. It was a little shaky, speaking of lingering fear. Maybe from being tossed into a strange coven, maybe from being a newly turned without a clue, maybe from being interrogated by the Queens. They were scary. 

“Oh, so you were the guy who ripped apart the banker? Dude, we need to do some serious fine tuning. But no worries, we’ll have you drink without even leaving a speck on your clothes in no time.” Yuta announced, trying to brush over the awkwardness by being extra cheerful and marched over to slap the guy on the back.

Taeyong almost tumbled off his chair, because Yuta had greatly underestimated his strength and weight – the guy seemed to be only skin and bones. But there was a tiny smile on his pretty face, when he had recovered and re-situated on the chair with Kun’s help.

 

When you were a human and had nightmares, your heart might start racing. You might start breathing heavily, so people around you could notice something was off, even when you weren’t screaming. Vampires’ hearts were still, and breathing was no longer necessary. 

Sleeping, on the other hand, was. And with sleep came dreams, both good and bad. Some so bad, you started thrashing in bed, trying to get away from invisible horrors.

 

Yuta slipped a hand onto Taeyong’s cold forehead and started drawing small patterns there. His blanket had hit the ground in a soft tuff, but Yuta’s ears were trained to sounds like that, waking him. Nightmares could be part of the mind trying to cope with a traumatic past. He was all too familiar with them, both he and Momo having a lot to get over during their first years… after.

“Taeyong. It’s alright. You’re safe here. Everything is good, everyone here likes you, we’ll protect you.” Yuta whispered and after a few soft words, the younger’s eyes snapped open and he tried to jerk up, but his hand on his forehead kept him down and from harming himself. “Careful.” 

Yuta let go after a moment, when he felt no more risk of Taeyong hurting himself from moving too quickly and helped him sit up. Taeyong seemed disoriented for a bit, until his eyes stopped daring around the room and settled on Yuta. 

“I’m so sorry.” Taeyong immediately started to pull away, make himself appear smaller. Scared of punishment. Yuta knew the motion all too well. He slowly moved to sit next to Taeyong on the sofa and picked the blanket off the ground, putting it over both their legs.

“Don’t worry about it. Those are really nasty, I know from experience. Do you want to talk about it?”

Taeyong quickly shook his head.

“Alright. If you do, I’ll listen. Do you want to try going back to sleep?”

Another shake. 

The door squeaked softly in its hinges and Kun patted into the living room, hair sticking up all directions, making him look so different from his stern, professional day-self. 

“I heard you talking, is everything alright?”

Taeyong started to look even more miserable “I’m so sorry for waking you up!”

“Please don’t be. I wouldn’t have woken up, if I hadn’t allowed myself to keep an ear out for you.” Kun came over slowly, running a hand through his unruly hair. 

Before Taeyong could utter more explanations or apologies, Ten stumbled through the door, not stopping, past Kun and smashed onto the sofa, head next to Taeyong’s hips, who looking completely spooked now.

“So tired.” With these words, Ten wrapped his arms around Taeyong’s mid and was out like a light again.

Kun settled on the floor in front of Taeyong, scanning him with worried eyes. “Taeyong just had a little nightmare, which woke me up.” Yuta said, keeping his voice down, because there were vampires living two stories below then, and they might hear, if he was too loud.

Kun nodded in understanding. “Do you want some tea? Albizia flower helps well with sleeplessness and anxiety.” He yawned “Or would you like to tell us what haunted you?”

“Tea sounds good.” Taeyong mumbled, wrapping his arms around his legs that he had pulled up. “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it, honestly, tea is a real blessing, with so many areas you can use it in. I can teach you about it, if you want to. Anything liquid, you can stomach, so tea is definitely a go to.” Kun explained, as he walked into the kitchen and poured water from their supply into the pot to boil. The smell of gas tickled Yuta’s nose, when Kun turned on the flame.

“Solid food is a no, though. If you haven’t already noticed. Unless you manage to check for so long, that it’s completely liquid.” Yuta added, before yawning again.

“You can go back to bed, I don’t want to keep you up, please.” Taeyong mumbled, eying him from the side.

“It’s alright, I want some tea, too, now that I’m up and Kun’s making some. And I’d feel much worse leaving you here alone, when you feel down.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yeah, definitely. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t?”

Taeyong didn’t answer and Yuta eyed him, getting the reply without it having to be spoken. To Taeyong, that probably made him a normal person.

 

Yuta had forgotten how many things were different, when you were a new vampire. But Ten and Kun were even worse, both several hundred years old and completely accustomed to enhanced senses, advanced healing, the bloody diet and the odd magic that came with it. 

Taeyong’s creator hadn’t bothered to teach him anything other than that he had to drink blood, but even that had been from a glass. Plus, he had spun the fairy tale of sunlight, crosses and several other everyday things being dangerous, which made Taeyong be on guard right about everything. 

Ten had to pull him into the sunlight, Kun and to rub a cross over his own arm, Ten chewed on garlic and Yuta drank the water he had stolen from the church the Americans had built. 

 

“The only thing that is actually dangerous and is also the only way to kill you for good, is wood. A stake through the heart? Deadly. Everything else, you’ll recover from within 24 hours, or with enough blood.” Kun explained over more tea, a few days into Taeyong living with them.

“But what if I lose a limb?” Taeyong asked worriedly.

“Grows back, but you need quite a bit of blood. And there’s more pleasant things, too.” Ten shuddered. 

“Yes, which should be kind of obvious.” Kun sighed deeply. 

“Well, I was young and curious. Anyway, I don’t recommend trying it.” Ten concluded and Yuta couldn’t help but rub his arm unconsciously. 

 

Taeyong started coming out of his shell after a few weeks, when he had gotten used to them. Feeding was a bit of a struggle, because Taeyong was extremely shy and uncomfortable at the shady bars they had to frequent to get some good meals. Yuta was guessing he had some bad experience there, but Taeyong didn’t tell them anything, and didn’t complain, only kept clinging close and looking around worriedly.

The nightmares also didn’t stop. While during the day, Ten and Kun fuzzed around him and Taeyong stuck to them mainly, at night it was Yuta who heard him thrash and got up, sitting with him, until he dozed back off. 

Ten had quickly noticed how uncomfortable it made Taeyong, when he felt like he was burdening them and being lazy in the first place, he just ignored the sounds, and Kun had been the one Taeyong opened up to the easiest and from there had concluded it was better if he just let Yuta handle this particular problem for him.

Yuta was more than fine with it. He just took a nap in the afternoon to catch up on sleep, or go to bed earlier. He lacked the mother instinct Kun had and where Ten seemed to step in to explain things maturely – very surprising – Yuta preferred to joke around.

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re good.” Yuta whispered, as Taeyong’s eyes darted around the room, blood red in colour. Taeyong still had quite little control over that, because it was very hard to control consciously, but Kun and him had been working on it. 

That he had changed into “red-mode” while dreaming was new, though. It was a bit worrisome, too, but Yuta wasn’t going to point it out. Taeyong quickly noticed on his own, when he mumbled another apology and his tongue hit a fang.

“Why did my fangs come out?” Taeyong’s voice was a bit too loud, shaky.

Yuta ruffled his hair to reassure. “Kun told you they can come out in emotional situations, right?”

Taeyong nodded slowly, still looking rather upset, one fang digging into his lower lip cutely. “Sorry I’m such an annoyance.”

“You’re not, though. We all were clueless, when we were first turned. I certainly was. Not sure about those two, since they’re, like, dinosaur aged. But I’m pretty sure they were just like you.”

“Yeah I… but you’re always getting up. You could just keep sleeping, it’s okay.”

“But I want to. I used to have really terrible nightmares. They only started about two months, I’d say, after I was changed and it helped me a lot not to be alone. Or would you prefer being alone?” Yuta knew that Taeyong didn’t, the shake of his head reconfirmed that.

Taeyong opened his mouth, like to ask for more and Yuta was expecting the questions – kind of. But he seemed to think differently of it, closing it before a word had passed them, staying quiet, until they both had dozed off.

 

It took more than six months for Taeyong to ask. Six months of nightmares every night, but a lot of process during the day. After Yuta had given him a different explanation and approach on how to control the “red-state”, Taeyong started to get a grip on it, there was still some work to be done, but he was getting there. 

Feeding also became easier. It turned out Taeyong really thrived when dancing, losing his shyness and switching into an attitude that rivalled their own. That, plus more precision with where and how deep to place the bite made Kun relax considerably, when they had to go feed every other night.

 

“It’s like we’re becoming a family, right? Like we adopted a child.” Ten cooed, hugging Taeyong affectionately. 

Yuta frowned. If there was anything he didn’t want back, it was his family. His father, who never accepted him, his mother that never looked at him and never returned his efforts for her to be happy. Maybe his sister, she had been like a friend. But that was the point: friends had always been more important to Yuta. And Kun and Ten were very good friends to him, Taeyong starting to grow onto him, too.

“I honestly don’t want to be a father.” Yuta simply mumbled. 

“Well, you can be the weird, gay uncle then.”

“Two fathers, of course isn’t gay whatsoever.” Yuta returned.

“Two fathers and a Yuta is fine.” Taeyong said, looking very calm, where he was half-lying on Ten. 

“I’m expecting a Number one dad cup for my birthday.” Ten cackled, enjoying the idea way too much.

“When is your birthday even?” Yuta rolled his eyes. He certainly didn’t recall when his birthday was. Sometime in autumn, but where ever that was written down was probably buried in some descendant of his sister’s basement. If there ever were any. 

“Well, I don’t know. It might be tomorrow.”

“Alright, so Ten’s birthday is on the 27th of February from this year on. I’m going to give you a rain-check for a blowjob. Congratulations.”

Ten held Taeyong’s ears shut “Not in front of the child.”

 

It was the first night, that Taeyong didn’t wake Yuta up. Instead he woke up naturally at around seven, because he had always been an early riser. His first instinct was to check the living room to see, if he had just missed Taeyong suffering alone. 

But the younger vampire was curled into the soft pink blanket, completely still, save for the reflexive breathing. Yuta smiled to himself and stalked into the kitchen, to get some juice to drink. Maybe Taeyong wanted a family? Maybe that was, what calmed him now?

The fridge hummed in the background, while Yuta stared at the pieces of orange that hadn’t been filtered from the juice and were floating in the liquid. Maybe, he should re-evaluate the concept of families…

“Good morning.” Kun waddled into the room behind Yuta, hair already combed, looking put together and fresh. “Did you read the news? They’re testing more nuclear weapons.” 

Yuta couldn’t help, but groan. “Seriously? One day they’ll accidentally blow up half a country or something.”

“I agree. But I don’t think they care very much about a few critics’ opinions.”

“Because getting bigger and bigger bombs will surely avoid more war.” Yuta snorted in disgust. He had seen the pictures from his home country, what the impact had done to people, the radiation… how they could just ignore the cruelty of war and continue on was beyond him.

It didn’t take very long for Taeyong to wake up, too, and join them in the kitchen. He let his thoughts return from frustration and anger back to reality.

“Did you sleep well?” Yuta asked, the question in the question quite clear. 

“Yeah, really well, thank you.” Taeyong smiled and settled next to Kun, looking into the paper over his arm. 

 

Where the US army bases were, clubs and bars flourished. Of course, clubs had always been around, even during the war. What better way to forget about your worries, than to drink and dance? But Itaewon really was another level of party. And alcohol.

Yuta had been very vary of it the first years, but by now, he knew what to expect, how much he could drink and how his body would react. And the beautiful part was: the next day, he could just not drink and be fine. 

Taeyong was intimidated by the Westerners, even shier than normally, blinking big eyes, which in turn made them more interested in his – to them – exotic beauty. Yuta couldn’t blame them. Taeyong was stunning, but he couldn’t help getting a bit over-protective of their newest coven addition. Just in case. Kun was the same, and with him still training Taeyong on how to feed, there was always someone watching over him.

Ten, however, was completely fluent in English and had been doing this for very long, so Yuta didn’t worry too much about him. Until he didn’t show back up at the time they were supposed to meet up to go home. 

Of course, not everyone went home every night. Ten was a notorious one-night stand, but Yuta and Kun did go home with someone from time to time, too. But they never failed to tell each other. It was just a safety precaution. That you didn’t get staked by a Hunter or something.

So, when Ten wasn’t there, Yuta immediately felt worry choke him up.

Taeyong’s shirt was stained red, hidden under Kun’s jackets… for the better part. Kun checked his watch again, his foot tapping, which was a give-away he was stressed. 

“He’s probably still inside, don’t you think? Maybe he got drunk. At the places I used to work, people got so drunk they didn’t realise their actions anymore all the time.” Taeyong softly suggested.

Yuta and Kun exchanged a glance. It wasn’t impossible. But normally, it wouldn’t happen. It didn’t take more than five years to figure out exactly how much exactly you could drink and there was no reason to go overboard, when they were just here to feed. Most of the time, they wouldn’t drink at all, other than blood, that was. It might be an explanation, but it seemed unlikely. 

“I’ll go back inside and check, if I can find him. Give me 15 minutes.” Yuta suggested. That way, if it was Hunters, only he was going to be put at risk, keeping Kun and Taeyong safe and ready to alert others, if he also didn’t come back.

Kun frowned, but nodded, and Yuta was back inside in the blink of an eye. The dim light wasn’t a problem to his hypersensitive eyes, and he pushed through the masses with ease, his strength freshly replenished.

The place wasn’t too big, but the band was popular and playing loudly, so it took Yuta some time to comb through the people having a good time. 

But he did find Ten, on the floor in the corner behind where the counter met the back wall, not quite passed out, but looking pretty out of it.

Yuta felt his brows furrowing. This was more than odd. “Ten. Tennie?” He crouched down, taking a limp, cold hand.

Ten groaned and tried to look Yuta’s direction, but he seemed unable to locate him. Yuta ran his hand over his chest, but came back clean, so he hadn’t gotten stabbed, which was good. That meant he’d be fine in 24 hours or so. 

Another moment of sitting there wasn’t going to ruin anything more than it was already ruined, so Yuta quickly stepped over, waving the bartender to himself. Instead of ordering anything, how he made it seem, he smiled at him, looking into his eyes and allowing himself to access the stranger’s thoughts, making him take a break and bring a message to Kun waiting outside.

“Tennie? Hey, it’s me Yuta.”

Ten smiled, eyes closing. So he had probably at least heard him. That was good.

“Take a deep breath for me.”

He went ignored, not very surprisingly. It was hard to get a good sniff of what Ten had exactly drunk like this, but he didn’t smell strongly of alcohol. The thought that it might be something else started creeping up on Yuta. 

He glanced around, trying to find someone suspicious, but it was hard to and Ten probably should be taken home. Vampires recovered from right about everything, but that didn’t mean the process of doing so wasn’t shitty. 

Still, the thought that someone had given Ten questionable substances didn’t leave Yuta and it didn’t sit well with him. They had talked about it: drugs and addiction. It was inevitable, really, because it was such a big part of Yuta’s history. 

Opiates were quite well known. Of course they were, there had been a whole war because of them, so Ten knew what he was talking about, and he also knew about the dangers, better than Yuta himself, it seemed. But these days, there was more than only that on the market. New creations seemed to hit Seoul’s night life every day and they seemed all just as dangerous to Yuta.

“You found him!” Apparently, the message had gotten to Kun. 

“Yeah, I’m surprised we didn’t stumble over him earlier.” Yuta muttered. Kun’s eyebrows furrowed in worry, too. Ten looked worse than he had when Yuta had found him, nothing but a puddle of himself.

“Well, it’s the farthest corner.” Kun crouched down next to Yuta and put a hand on Ten’s jaw, pulling him closer, which made the manhandled vampire groan, but not really struggle to resist. 

“Did… did he really drink too much?” Taeyong asked, holding Kun’s jacket tighter around himself.

“I don’t think so. There were some guys offering shit to the customers here. Ten has a good tolerance, if he were blackout drunk, he’d smell worse. And he would have come with a different mind-set. He wasn’t planning to get himself shit-faced.” Kun grumbled, letting Ten sink back down.

“Who was offering what?” Yuta cut in, feeling anger bubble in his gut. So, he had been right. Fuck.

Kun’s face was understanding, but overly calm. “Yuta, you know this happens sometimes. I didn’t expect Ten to get stuck in this but… he’s old enough to decide for himself.”

“I don’t care what Ten does. Well, I do. But I know he wouldn’t be accepting anything. They probably slipped it to him.”

“Yuta, don’t overreact.”

“I’m not overreacting.” Yuta slapped away the hand Kun was trying to put on his arm in a soothing gesture. Taeyong startled worse than Kun, but Yuta couldn’t consider his feelings right now.

“What did they look like?”

“Just some dudes, Yuta I didn’t play any attention to them. And neither should you, if they’re even still around.”

“Well, I’ll find them and give them a piece of my mind, you take Ten back.” Yuta hissed, turning to push back through the crowd before Kun could hold him back.

Some dudes – that was always the same type. Those really low gang members, who thought they were it, but really were nothing but small fish in the pond. He wasn’t going to change much by getting rid of them, but the small change he could bring was enough for Yuta to let his gaze travel over the bouncing people.

 

“Were you… like did you have something to do with drugs? In the past? Because it’s totally fine, if you did, just… uh.” Taeyong dabbed a cotton ball, soaked in medical alcohol over Yuta’s knuckles, where the skin had split. “You don’t have to answer that.”

“It’s okay. I was kind of hoping you would ask. I’m glad you did.” Yuta watched, as Taeyong wrapped a completely unnecessary gauze over his hand. He had told him, this was going to be gone come morning, but he had insisted. It was sort of sweet. 

Ten had passed out peacefully and Kun had already been asleep, too, by the time Yuta returned from his revenge-mission. He would have to talk to Kun tomorrow, settle the little argument. He hadn’t killed anyone. And mobsters, like them, wouldn’t dare go to the police, anyway. Yuta had just messed up their ugly faces a little… and their stupid tattoos. 

Yuta didn’t like tattoos that marked people as property.

“I was a user, back when I was still human. The need for more, it makes you forget. Forget who you are, what’s important to you, how life even works. And I’d do anything to keep people away from that. Addiction comes in many shapes, but it’s always awful. I can’t watch it, when they distribute it to the public, getting more people hooked on it. They’re just there for the money. 

“But for the person they get addicted, they can take their whole life. That shit is expensive, you build up dept so big you can never repay it.” Yuta groaned, rubbing his face with his free hand. 

“But beating them up won’t make them stop, will it?” Taeyong mumbled, knotting the ends so the bandage wouldn’t come off. 

“No, it won’t, but bewitchment will.”

“But, well, I’m not that good at bewitching yet, but you don’t have to beat anyone up to bewitch them. Right?”

“I know, I know that all too well. That was just anger management issues.” Yuta felt a bit embarrassed admitting it. And he wasn’t even a good fighter, which was why he had so many bruises, even with opponents that didn’t fight back.

“Oh. Okay. I’m sure you have your reasons for that. Were the drugs the reason for your nightmares?”

Yuta huffed to himself, shaking his head “They might as well, they’re bad enough on their own. But no. The price I had to pay for my addiction was.”

“The debt you built up? They made you work it off?”

“Yes. You know how the streets work better than one might think from your innocent appearance.” Yuta chuckled. He eyed Taeyong. Maybe his nightmares had a similar, or even the same reason?

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Taeyong muttered. “I worked at many places, the night-entertainment kind. You know, they’re all paying protection money to someone. Those guys might pretend to be part of some army, but they really aren’t.”

“No, they aren’t.”

“They’re just thugs. Low life. So that’s how I know. I didn’t work for them, if you’re thinking that. I mean, I don’t think less of your or something. Just… I didn’t do that kind of work, the service kind.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

They sat in silence for a bit, Taeyong quietly putting away his supplies. “I was killed during a stabbing at the bar I danced at.”

Yuta’s eyebrows shot up. “You were?”

“Yeah, it was… pretty messy and I just ended up in the middle of it.”

“Well, that’s not too different from myself. I was shot at my bar.”

That seemed to genuinely brighten Taeyong’s mood, who perked up. “I thought that was such a lame way to die! At least we can share!”

Yuta had never thought about whether it was cool or not. But thinking back, it was really sort of pathetic. “I usually call it bad luck.”

“Yeah, that, too. But that’s not where my nightmares are from. I only did what I wanted to. But… the reason why I woke back up was some psychopath, that’s really the only name for him, gave me his blood without me knowing. He was always at that damn bar and of course he survived the stabbing, since he was immortal already. He picked me up and added me to his collection of pretty people. 

“But I completely relied on him, even if he didn’t treat us well. And then he was gone and everything after wasn’t fun either, he was killed by Taeyeon’s coven and I spent a week on the streets before getting that banker and then I was almost killed again. But the nightmares aren’t about Seohyun. They are… were about him, how he stared at us for hours, not allowing us to move even the slightest bit, until he got tired, which could sometimes take the whole day. It makes my skin crawl. And I feel dumb, for not realising his lies and running away earlier.”

“That the sun was harmful, you mean? Those lies?”

“Yes.”

“Well, how should you have known? Those silly books also teach those lies and without another vampire around to teach you differently… You shouldn’t blame yourself for not being able to see through a manipulator’s methods, even experts can be fooled by them.”

Taeyong slowly nodded. 

“I guess so. I haven’t dreamt of him last night. Maybe, he just won’t return.”

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you.”

“Maybe you should try meditating, for your anger management?” 

Yuta chuckled. “I might want to do that.”

“Ten always meditates in the morning, maybe you can join him.”

“Ten does Yoga and he, like, puts his feet behind his head and stuff, that’s not for me. And if I were there, he’d annoy me.”

“Why are you sleeping with him, if he annoys you so much, though?”

“Okay, first of all, that is just a makeshift solution and definitely not the preferred, because he makes me top all the time, that is just not a situation to accept in the long run. And Ten is super annoying, but I still like him, unfortunately.”

Taeyong smiled and nodded, looking quite pleased with himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you like the story so far? I edited the tags a bit, just fyi. YuWin is coming back next chapter~


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In an effort to forget adult-responsibilities, I was surfing Twitter and found a pretty nice aesthetic for Sicheng, that could give you an idea of how I imagine his looks (though he does have long hair rn). [Click here](https://twitter.com/nct_dong_winwin/status/1079803550987886592)

“So, they had dragon fruit at the store and I wondered if you could try making a smoothie with it?” Sicheng blinked at Yuta, holding up a pink fruit. “I really like it.”

“Yes, of course!” Yuta would happily make a smoothie from right about anything Sicheng would want him to, if he only asked.

“Thank you so much!” Sicheng’s face lit up beautifully, like it did so often. “What is your favourite fruit?”

“Uh… peach?”

“I like peaches, too. The fur feels so nice, right?”

Yuta just nodded, imagining Sicheng petting a peach… god, that’d be adorable!

They were busy stacking the fridge with all of Sicheng’s findings from the trip to the grocery store with Jaehyun today, when the door beeped, announced the arrival of someone.

It was Saturday, so most of the time everyone ended up here, since going out had become dangerous. Ten sometimes complained it was too crowded, but secretly, he was proud to be host to the coven meetings. 

“Guys, I brought milkshakes!” A voice hollered through the whole place. Yuta closed the fridge door with a chuckle. 

“Lucas, there are neighbours living here, who aren’t interested in the beverages we’ll be consuming today.”

“I’m sorry Kun-Ma.”

“What’s a milkshake? Is it shaken milk? Is that tasty?” Sicheng asked with his confused face. Yuta giggled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, feeling him stiffen a little, but allow the contact. 

“Well, there is milk in it, at least I think so, but it’s mainly sugar and there’s different flavours: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry…”

“Oh! And you can drink it?”

“Absolutely. It’s super delicious.”

“Lucas? Can I try one?” Sicheng dragged Yuta along into the living room, where Lucas was putting ten cups of milkshake on the sofa table.

 

The next ones to arrive were Taeyong and Jaehyun, who were both wearing elaborate eye-makeups. “I bought this new palate from Etude House!” Taeyong bounced in his place, holding up a colourful package. “Can I try it on you, Yuta?”

“What is that?” Sicheng asked. He had sat down next to Yuta – not that Yuta had given him much of a choice. But if he didn’t want to be close, he could have gotten away.

“It’s for the eyes!” Taeyong excitedly flipped the palate open to show the colours to them. “Look? I did it on myself. And on Jaehyunnie!”

Jaehyun obediently closed his eyes, when his boyfriend prompted him to, so Sicheng could appreciate art. 

“That’s very pretty! So bright, too.”

“Yes, that’s the trend now. I wanted to try it on Yuta and Ten, but if you want to, I’d love to do it on you, too?”

Oh lord, Sicheng in smoky eyes… Yuta should see where on his new phone (the other had broken for mysterious reasons after he had cleaned it. Lucas had said something about the sink being the wrong place and the tab water being the wrong means to do so, but please… how else were you supposed to get it nice and shiny?) the camera function was, because he needed to capture that for all eternity. On second thought, Yuta broke about one phone every other week, so looking for his good, old fashioned camera might be the wiser choice here.

“Oh, you bought milkshakes? Do you have banana flavoured?” Jaehyun perked up, flopping onto the sofa.

“Banana flavour is not tolerated in this house hold!” 

“Oh, Ten, I didn’t hear your returning.”

 

Yuta tried to hold onto the fun parts, like these: showing Sicheng around the 21st century and living with his dear coven mates, but his mood kept being ruined by bad news. He tried not to show it, but his nerves were starting to wear thin in worry over his close friends, as well as his acquaintances in the city.

At first, it was Kun and Ten having to take out Hunter from one of the werewolf-run club in the city – the very same one Yuta had gotten his arse into the Hunters’ register.

Then, it was a rogue literally breaking into Hyoyeon’s dancing studio, while Ten was teaching, almost taking out both Ten and the student.

Yuta was starting to freak out in the confinement of the flat, that had couldn’t really leave.

 

“Taeyeon ordered everyone to run patrols around their neighbourhoods.” Kun sat on the kitchen table. He and Ten had been at the coven meeting, returning with a tall, soft faced stranger, who was standing in the corner awkwardly. 

“And what are we looking for?” Lucas asked, balancing where he was trying to lie on top of the backrest of the sofa carefully. He was too long for the whole damn thing and looked like a complete idiot, but apparently wasn’t aware of that. 

“Well… suspicious people, I think. Newly turns… I don’t know, you know what a street is supposed to look like and when it doesn’t, you tell the Queens.” Ten shrugged.

“I can take them. I don’t sleep that much and looking around outside sounds like fun.” Sicheng easily offered.

“Okay, that’s really nice, but I’d feel terrible making you run all of them.” Kun shook his head. Of course, Kun wouldn’t want to burden someone. But Yuta was also perfectly aware that the Queens didn’t trust Sicheng, so if Kun would solely send him, they might come to wrong conclusions. It wasn’t wise to make yourself look suspicious in any way, shape, or form. Ever and especially not now.

If only he could help. He certainly wouldn’t mind spending more time with Sicheng. An involuntary pout made its way onto Yuta’s face. He didn’t even bother suggesting to help. He knew that Kun was going to shoot him down, worried over his safety. Yuta got it. He didn’t WANT to end up dust on the side walk.

But he also didn’t want Sicheng to.

On the other hand, ancient vampires were notoriously hard to kill and Sicheng wasn’t just ancient – he was super-ancient. Or something. What was older than ancient? Pre-historic? No, that was sort of over-dramatic. Not that Yuta had anything against dramatics.

“And who’s that?” Taeyong asked, looking at the stranger in the corner, who visibly shrunk. 

“Hi.” His voice was the opposite of Lucas’: high and soft, the type that would easily get overpowered and go ignored. “Uh, I’m Jungwoo.”

“Oh yes, Jungwoo is only a few months old and doesn’t have any place to stay, so Ten and me were thinking to adopt him. Any objections?”

The remaining five coven members shook their heads.

“I do think I might have to move, though.” Ten sighed, looking around the room, that already doubled as Sicheng’s bedroom.

“Uh, I can sleep on the floor, it’s no trouble.”

“I really can’t make you sleep on the floor! I’m sure we can find a mattress somewhere. I would suggest living on the sofa in Jaehyun and Taeyong’s flat, but really, that is a bad idea.” Kun assured, pulling the newly added coven member into their circle. 

NO ONE wanted to live with Taeyong and Jaehyun. Those who went at it like bunnies plus all the kinky shit they were into was not what you wanted to involuntarily overhear. Yuta liked to tease them about it, but he didn’t want to get any additional traumas, thank you.

 

“And then, you press here to send it.” Yuta held the phone in front of Sicheng, who stared at it with wide eyes. 

“Are you sure? Does that work when I use it, rather than you?” 

“Yes, it should.”

“It doesn’t recognise you as its owner?” Sicheng blinked and Yuta smiled easily.

“No, it really doesn’t. At least not anymore, since it always blocked me out, too.” Something about being too impatient with the finger-print sensor.

“I don’t feel comfortable with this. It’d be just a lot safer, if you went with and sent the message, don’t you think?”

“But I’m not supposed to go with you. Kun will literally freak out.” Yuta mumbled, glancing over to the closed door of Ten’s room. Ten wasn’t even home, why was he scared, this was an all-time low.

“Well, what Kun doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?” Sicheng smiled so angelically, Yuta had to take a second to process he was actually suggesting this right now.

“No, it won’t.”

“Excellent.” Sicheng beamed and took Yuta’s hand, dragging him towards the door to get dressed and wrap his face behind a mask.

 

At 1am in the morning, the streets were relatively empty, but the chic party locations were not too far from Ten’s flat, so there were people, drunk out of their minds, staggering around the sidewalks. Yuta was pretty sure they were the most suspicious figures around, dressed all in black, with their faces hidden, just wandering through the streets.

“The upside to this situation is, that we get to do investigative work.” Sicheng pointed as, as they rounded a young man, that was dragging a girl along. She clung to him, so Yuta didn’t feel alarmed, and he kept repeating pacifying words to her.

“Play police, you mean? I don’t really like the police, with their damn unit four…” Yuta buried his hands deeper in his pockets. He didn’t feel the cold like he used to, but especially now that he was staying inside so much he was a bit sensitive to the wind.

“Fair point, the Hunters are annoying, but the police itself is such a cool, amazing thing, really!” Sicheng straightened up, as he spoke, a stronger accent bleeding into his words, as he got excited. “I used to work for them for a little, the royal investigators. During early Qing-dynasty. You wouldn’t believe how much murder happened, back in the days. And it was so tough to solve, like a quiz.”

“Who murdered? Did the concubines stab each other? Like in the dramas?”

“No, that would have been much too obvious. And they weren’t trained at all, so I doubt they’d manage to give each other fatal wounds. But in the military, so many things happened, it was our main focus, because they kept killing over important positions.”

Yuta turned his head, so Sicheng knew he was interested. Interested was the understatement of the century. Yuta wanted to know every last detail that he was willing to offer.

“The emperor would only assign the highest positions and he only did so by choosing those that had proven themselves and he trusted. But the lower ranks weren’t directly in his eye, because there were much too many of them. If you wanted to rise in ranks, you might kill your superior, but not after making sure everyone around him knew about you, so they’d pick you as his successor. If there was going to be a battle, or a reputable group to lead, you might kill your competitor, just to make sure you got chosen. And, of course, you had to act before someone else got the same idea.”

“Didn’t they try to kill you, if you wanted to bust their arses?”

“Bust… their…” Sicheng started giggling. It didn’t take long for it to turn into a full-blown laugh attack and Yuta couldn’t stop himself from laughing along. They stopped walking, as Sicheng curled up in a crouching position, body shaken by the laughs ripping from his chest. 

“I never knew you could say it like that, thank you, Yuta.” Sicheng hick-upped, when he managed to calm down a bit. “Bust their arses…” he giggled again.

Yuta had a grin etched into his face.

“But actually, they did sometimes threaten us. I mean, I’m pretty hard to kill, if I do say so myself, so I never worried much, but I know sometimes people quit because they were scared for their lives, when he investigated high profile people.”

“It’s kind of suspicious, though, if the guy you put your sword through a day before comes back to work, isn’t it?” Yuta knew people often reacted badly when they thought someone had died for sure, only to see them again, up and well. Especially that time, that that dude had stabbed Ten, because he wouldn’t go out with him. That had been fucked up and fun at the same time.

Sicheng shrugged easily “I can fight back, too. I’m trained in Wushu, several different styles, too.”

Yuta felt his jaw drop a bit. The thought of Sicheng in an epic duel came into his head, imaginary-Sicheng throwing mad punches at faceless evil guys… wow.

“Well, I was usually the kid getting beaten up growing up. And then I self-taught myself a bit of boxing.” Yuta mainly relied on his ability to make people take themselves out, like Mina had taught him, and his ability to heal quickly.

“If you want to, I can show you some more tricks.”

“Will I look like Jackie Chan?” Yuta perked up.

“I don’t know who that is, but uh… you’ll look really intimidating. And handsome.”

“Well, I don’t think I need any tricks for that, do I?”

Sicheng blinked at Yuta for a second, before starting to giggle again.

 

“Like, is giggling good? Or bad? Ten’s magazine said it was a sign a guy likes you.”

“Yuta?”

“Yes?”

“You had how many boyfriends in your life?”

“With human life? Four then. Long term.”

“Exactly, so shouldn’t you know how to tell that a guy likes you?”

“But no one ever was like him. Kun, you’ve known him for longer, you have to help me, please!” Kun massaged his temples.

“Yuta, I didn’t know-know him, so I’m really the wrong person to ask. Ten was friends with him!”

“But I can’t ask Ten!” Yuta shuddered at the thought. The Thai was already making so much fun of it, he couldn’t encourage that under any circumstances!

“Well… I don’t know then, but I feel unqualified for this question!”

Yuta huffed to himself. Normally, he would just make a few lewd jokes and quickly find himself either under the guy in question – the much preferred option – or turned down by a “no-homo-bro” answer within a few days. Yuta didn’t have a wooing-strategy. He watched tons of Shoujo Anime, but he had never put it to the test, personally. And with Sicheng… he didn’t feel comfortable making these type of innuendos. It was silly to think of a 2,000-year-old as innocent or naïve, and Sicheng wasn’t, he had proven that multiple times…

But Yuta still didn’t think it was the way to go. Sicheng was different and it was exciting. A true challenge.

“I just want him to like me.” Yuta pouted. Kun reached out to ruffle his hair.

“God, you’ve got it bad… honestly, Yuta, this sounds old, but in the end… you just have to be yourself. He’ll notice if you’re putting on a show, anyway. And then… just give it time. I don’t know about traditions 2,000 years ago, but I was born when courting was a huge deal and the mentality is still stuck. I know it’s not for Ten, so it might not for him, but generally, you could be more successful with a bit of old-fashioned behaviour, since he missed the last decades.”

“So, you’d give him lots of presents?” Yuta eagerly asked, already getting up. “Thanks Kun, I know you’d help me out.”

“No, Yuta, that’s not what I said. Yuta!”

“I’m not, like, getting them this second.” He had meant to. But Kun looked so panicked, it might be a bad idea.

“Good. That could backfire. Please at least read a Wikipedia article on it.”

“Right, about that, my phone stopped working yesterday, when Sicheng dropped it, so I’ll have to go as Lucas or Jaehyun for a replacement…”

 

The living room was cleaned out as good as possible with Ten’s flat housing much too many people right now. It hadn’t even been Yuta begging for fighting lessons – which he would have – but Sicheng suggesting it enthusiastically. And who was Yuta to say no…

“Alright, I hold the pillow up to here, and you try to kick it.”

Sicheng had a Bunny shaped Line Friends pillow in his hands and his long hair pulled back into a bun.

“But that’s shoulder height.”

“Yes, I thought we should start with something easy, or not?” Sicheng looked conflicted.

Right, so shoulder height was easy… great, Yuta was so going to make a complete fool of himself in front of his crush. Who didn’t enjoy that?

Yuta took a deep breath, which did nothing for him, but the psychological effect still kind of helped. 

“Yeah, sure, easy start sounds good!”

Sicheng beamed and waggled the pillow a bit, encouraging Yuta to get started. Like through a miracle, me managed to hit the pillow and not too badly either. Sicheng nodded in approval.

“Not bad. Needs more strength, try to get the twist in the waist with more force.” 

Yuta nodded and stepped forward again, trying to do was told. “Better! Do another ten or so of them, then we do the other side.”

 

As a vampire, you didn’t sweat, you did, however, get physically exhausted, though as fresh on blood as Yuta was, it wasn’t nearly as soon as it would have been if he were human. He was a certified couch potato, after all. 

But in front of Sicheng, who kept introducing new exercises, cheering Yuta on to do better, he didn’t want to show any signs of weakness. Not to mention it was mesmerising to watch the extend of control he had over his body, not a single finger out of place, every muscle tightened. 

So far, it had always been Yuta explaining things, Sicheng watching in wonder. Right now, it was the other way around, Sicheng was perfectly comfortable, in his element, and watched Yuta’s movements with hawk eyes.

“Your leg didn’t come up right enough.”

“It’s better, if you straighten your arm out, that way you can use more force.”

“Your angle was a bit off, so you couldn’t properly use your momentum. Try putting your eight further back, you’ll have an easier time.”

It all seemed so easy, when Sicheng say it and Yuta apparently did much better than even he himself would have thought possible, getting a bright smile every time he did something right, that was the best reward from him.

 

Sicheng was introducing some new move, twirling over the carpet in a simple enough motion for Yuta to copy, when the door bust open.

“Duuuuude, are you doing fighting lessons? Why didn’t you invite me oh my god! I wanna join!” Lucas’s eyes were big like saucers, Jungwoo pushing into the room behind him.

It was a saving grace, really, because Yuta’s muscles were aching and heavy. Only Lucas accidentally kicked the sofa table…

Well, long story short, they would have to buy a new table and a new TV.

 

Yuta pulled the facemask a bit higher over his nose. He felt uncomfortable, out of place in the streets of Myeongdong, even though it had not been that long since he left the flat. But he had not gone shopping in months, only sneaked outside at night with Sicheng. That was different. A lot different. But this was an important task and he had to do it personally. 

He shuffled into the mascot shop, starting to browse the shelves. The collection changed too often for him to really keep track of. But it was easy enough to find something he thought Sicheng would like: pyjamas with a pretty pattern, a note-pad and a biro. The girl at the counter gave him a quick once over, when he didn’t pull down his mask. He knew it was sort of rude, but he could have black death for all that she knew, so he didn’t appreciate the judging.

She rung him up, lazily giving him the total and Yuta caught her glance just for long enough to make her type in the confirmation that cash had been handed over, took the bag and went on his merry way. 

 

And since Yuta was just another innocent victim of capitalism, he somehow ended up with another few bags that… were all only basic necessities, he really, really needed. Plus those socks with black cats, those were cute, he was going to give them to Ten, because he kind of reminded Yuta of a cat, a black one to be precise, with his pitch black hair.

The only thing left to do, was hope that Sicheng would understand and accept his courting. 

 

Oh, and that he was into guys. That’d be helpful, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m actually reading 4IMLN on the side, so I can keep track of the right time line – and I kinda forgot a lot of stuff… I wrote…
> 
> Anyway, before Yuta starts his courting efforts and shit goes down in Seoul with the mystery killer, we’ll be hopping back in time once more next chapter, and get some special appearance by one of those four ex-boyfriends~


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re exclusively here for YuWin and hate other ships – I’m really sorry, you might want to consider skipping this chapter. I’m not sure how much it’ll affect your understanding, but I think you’ll be fine. There’ll also be a breakup-scene (otherwise this man wouldn’t be Yuta’s ex… duh). 
> 
> By the way, I left a hint for this person in To Be Dead Is Strange, thinking that I might want to pick up on it, it’s the “person who shall not be named” in Chapter 5. :D

Where vampires had their coven, werewolves came in a pack. That was pretty common knowledge, even among regular humans, who read fantasy novels. Other than that, werewolves were, at least to Yuta, pretty much a mystery. They were supernatural, too, yes, but the part where both them and the wolves were hunted by the department four was where the similarities ended. 

For one: vampires stopped aging, so their registrations with human offices lost validity rather quickly. Wolves had a life span as long as that of a normal human. Though probably a lower life expectancy, because they weren’t treated as human beings and slaughtered off in cold blood. Still, they could fly under the radar easier than vampires, and were able to get normal jobs, normal education, normal everything, as long as no Hunter took notice of them.

And because of that, werewolves liked to stay clear of vampires, because vampires were more noticeable to Hunters, able to give away their identities and by that their packs, which were easy to identify from family relations. 

If they found a wolf, they would just kill of the whole family. It was nothing short of barbaric, in Yuta’s opinion. So, he had met werewolves before, but never made friends with them. They also usually came in sets, which was sort of bad to make friends, even when you were a social person, because befriending a whole ground that had already been friends for longer was just… hard. 

So, Yuta was quite surprised, when he caught the typical scent of wolf on a tall, handsome guy, but no one else in the whole club. He just stood on the side, eyes trained on the happenings around him, but not participating. He was immediately intrigued. He’d have to at least talk to this guy. For science.

“Did you lose your friends?” Yuta leaned on the standing table where the stranger was nursing one for those new hits from the west – cocktails, they called them. Yuta loved them almost as much as cock without the tail, because they tasted great and looked pretty.

The guy let his eyes travel over Yuta, slowly, in a way that held purpose, but the twitch of his nose broke the stoic façade a bit. “No. I didn’t. And I’m also not here for blood donations.”

“Well, I would only be disappointed if you were type B.”

The guy raised an eyebrow. “Picky eaters? I never heard of that before. How come?”

It wasn’t the first time Yuta heard that. Mina had been confused, when he had started only drinking type B and Ten found it a source of endless amusement. Even Kun sometimes chuckled at it. “Have you had blood?”

“Obviously not, I’m not a sharp-tooth.”

Yuta couldn’t stop the smile from growing over his face. Blood-sucker was a common nickname, but it was to look down on them. Sharp-tooth sounded… cute.

“Well, let me give you a quick overview, so you can understand why B is superior. Zero tastes like you made chicken but forgot to add any spices and topped it off with a sauce made from newspaper, A tastes like you made pudding, but added salt, rather than sugar and AB… well, I don’t want to step on your toes.”

The wolf’s jaw dropped a little. “You can smell my blood type?”

Yuta grinned and shrugged “It’s one of many talents. I also don’t have a gag reflex.”

The wolf managed to recover from his surprised state and dragged his eyes over Yuta once more, which was both fun and unfortunately, because Yuta liked to have the upper hand, but he also liked someone confident.

“That line has proven to be wrong before.” 

Oho, really now?

“Bragging isn’t sexy, you know? Thank god I’m not that picky with everything that goes into my mouth.”

Yuta moved around the table, towards the wolf, slowly, letting his eyes travel over his face, then lower, taking broad shoulders, the fitted shirt against a muscular chest, a small waist and long legs. 

“Aren’t I lucky?”

Yuta had come close enough to nudge into the wolf’s arm. He felt extremely warm, where their skin was touching, but it was Yuta’s feeding day, so he’d run a little colder than normal and wolves were known for being hot.

In more than one way.

“Well, I can give you live proof that I’m not all talks.”

“Cute.” The guy had the audacity to tap Yuta’s nose.

He was a predator of the night, maybe a bit clumsy and bad-lucked. But he was handsome in a mysterious, scary way.

“I’m not… cute!” Yuta huffed. “No one ever called me cute!”

The guy shrugged, before taking the last sip of his cocktail “Their loss. But if you want to get some action, maybe don’t try hitting on a wolf.”

“Why?” He was genuinely confused at that, because really, why was this man alone at a club, if he wasn’t looking to hook up, unless… “Are you discriminating against vampires?”

The guy chuckled and shook his head “I can assure you, that I don’t. Rather my nature really isn’t made for the low-involvement stuff. Sorry, cutie.”

“Really? I didn’t know. Sorry, if I made you uncomfortable.” Yuta took a step back. He had always assumed wolves were pretty much normal, but he really knew too little to make an educated assumption.

“You didn’t. I certainly don’t mind getting attention from pretty boys.”

Yuta really didn’t know where this all was coming from. Maybe it was because this guy was so tall? But it felt oddly flattering, being called pretty and cute. He should consider adding it to his portfolio. Like a second source of getting laid more. 

“So, if you aren’t here to get your dick wet, what are you doing here?” Yuta eyed him. He was definitely dressed up, like he had noticed earlier already. Not very flashy, but still in a way that you’d notice he made an effort.

“I work here, sweetie.”

“On the dance floor? With alcohol?” Yuta laughed.

“If your nose is good enough to smell my blood type and decide I’m not in your menu, you should be able to tell, that this is only juice.” He held up the glass, where only the rests of liquid that stuck to the sides and the bottom remained, holding it Yuta’s direction. Indeed, the whiff of burning liquor missed and Yuta felt a bit embarrassed, but he hadn’t even given it another thought. 

“Still, you’re not doing anything. I want a job where I don’t do anything, too!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, cutie. I’m security staff. So if you went over there and, say, started to punch someone, you’d see how much I am working here.”

Yuta smirked “So, you’d pin me to the ground, if I caused trouble?” 

The wolf took in a sharp breath, eyes narrowing on Yuta, who was pressing against his side again. 

“Well, that’s good to know. See you around then. Maybe. If they don’t fire you, before I come back. Say, how many times do I have to come, that you don’t consider it low-involvement anymore?” 

“As long as you only show up to work… I’m afraid never. You have to make a bit more of an effort for that.”

“Do I? And where do I apply, to make that effort?”

The guy too his wrist and pulled. Yuta was surprised by the strength the wolf held. Humans couldn’t just handle him like that, even if he wasn’t trying to resist, the natural strength to his body overpowering them easily. But this guy also hadn’t seemed to put in a lot of energy. It was hotter than it probably should be. He had produced a pen from somewhere and started writing onto the exposed skin.

“Meet me there?”

Yuta’s arm was freed, and he pulled it towards him to read what was written on his skin now.

*Seoul Metropolitan Library, Junggu, tomorrow, 4 pm*

He looked back up, seeing the wolf’s eyes still on him.

“Nice. Do I get your name, too, type-AB?”

“Hansol.”

 

“A date?”

“With a what?”

“At the library?”

“What the fuck, Yuta?”

His coven mates screamed over each other. Kun was screaming. Yuta should mark his calendar. But also: What the hell, how little faith did they have in him?

“Uh, yes. He was alone and he flirted with me, you know?”

“But at a library? Can you even read?” Ten brought his initial question back up. 

“Can you shut up? I can read two languages, you arse.”

“But a date? You said you weren’t really interested in dating anyone!” Taeyong’s eyes were sparkling in curiosity. 

“Well, I don’t know… it could be really just a one-time-thing. I’ll see.”

“Okay, just hold it right there. Yuta, with a wolf. A werewolf. Are you serious? Werewolves are… they’re not like humans and they’re not like us, you know that, right?” Kun asked with a serious face, but his voice was back to normal.

“Why?” Taeyong asked. He had been with them for two years, but wolves had never really come up. Quite honestly, Wolves generally never really came up, unless they got the sad news of the hunters killing off another family from time to time.

“Yeah, why, Kun? Are you racist?” Yuta got curious, too.

“What? No!”

“Okay, baby vampires, it’s time for a biology lesson. Sit down, pens out, we’ll be writing a test tomorrow.” Ten stood up from where he had just settled back down after screeching about Yuta’s alleged illiteracy. 

“I’m not a baby vampire! I’m 100 years old this year!”

“Your human years don’t count into that and everyone who doesn’t know enough about wolves to make a reasonable decision whether or not to date them is a baby to me.” Ten swatted his hand away. “And Taeyong needs the lessen even worse.”

That Yuta couldn’t argue with, not to mention Taeyong looked more than eager to learn.

“First of all, wolves usually come in a pack.”

“Already know that. Boring. Next!” Yuta pretended to hoot from the audience. Ten threw the closest object his direction – a fork, that he just managed to catch before it stabbed him between his eyes. 

“Wolves are extremly social creatures and they form deep bonds.”

“But we’re close, too, aren’t we?” Taeyong interrupted. Yuta wanted to agree, but then again, he was fine with going somewhere Ten, Kun and he weren’t, while wolves seemed sort of in constant fear of dying of loneliness. 

“We do, but wolves are another level. They can actually smell emotions on their pack mates, that’s how close they are. Especially the wolves higher in the hierarchy are constantly making sure everyone is feeling well and is happy.”

“Isn’t that kind of nice?” Taeyong interrupted again. He also did that when they watched movies, and asked what would happen next, like the others could see the future. But it was cute, so Yuta let it slide.

Kun and Ten shrugged “That depends. It can get overbearing, I believe. And pack bonds are one thing, but the other are mates. That’s what the wolves use for their… well partners, really. They bond for life, usually quite early. Once a wolf’s heart is settled on one person, they never fall in love again, or something. It’s their nature.”

“Wait, you don’t mean to say because I go on a date with this dude he’ll want to spend all his life with me? That’s ridiculous, Kun.”

Kun fixed Yuta in a stare that made him back down.

“I don’t. But you need to remember this, when dating one.”

“That’s so romantic.” Taeyong sighed, eyes far away. Yuta patted his back. He thought of himself was quite romantic, but he had nothing on their youngest. Hopefully, Taeyong’s prince charming was somewhere out there, waiting to sweep him off his feet.

“Alright, got it. Anything else?”

“Well, I mean, wolves are pretty known for their strength and stamina, so have fun with that.”

“Ten, this is not what we were going for.”

“Why? They’re usually pretty great in bed.”

Kun groaned and shook his head. “Yuta, what I wanted to say is… wolves love loyally and for a lifetime. And their lifetime is much shorter than yours. He’ll start growing old in a few decades, while you stay young. You’re setting each other up for heartbreak, either because you’ll break up with him, because he can’t keep up anymore, or he eventually dies. And wolves cannot be turned, so don’t even bring it up.”

Yuta wrinkled his nose. “Okay, got it. If it takes a turn for the serious, I’ll break things off early. Problem solved.”

Kun didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t say anything, so Yuta accepted it as a silent permission.

 

Ten wasn’t that far off. Yuta had never been to the library. There were more interesting things to him than reading. He could never quite get emerged in the stories and he couldn’t count how many times he had dozed off while reading.

The scent of wolf was impossible to miss for someone with a nose like his. Some said it smelled like wet dog, but that was just another insult, just like blood sucker. To Yuta, it was neither bad, nor good, just different from humans or vampires. Well, vampires didn’t really smell to him. But they did to wolves.

“Hi.” Yuta had a spring in his step, as he approached the tall, waiting figure. “Am I late? Did you wait for long?” he turned his arm to check the watch on his wrist. Well, five minutes late…

“A little. I was worried you changed your mind.”

“Sorry. I didn’t. I’m a bit bad with time, since it doesn’t really matter in the long run, if I get stuff done an hour earlier or later.” Yuta grinned.

“And your boss? Does he also not care?” Hansol teased back.

“That’s where it gets problematic. So, I’m just the good-looking addition to the coven.”

Hansol snorted softly. To be honest, they didn’t really need that much money. Expensive things only came with bewitchment, anyway, and while you were at it, you could just make the person think they got the money, too.

“It’s fine. I’m not going to judge how you and your coven get around, we all have our dark secrets.”

“How fun, what’s your dark secret?”

Hansol eyed Yuta warily. “I’m mated.”

The words took a moment to register with him, then Yuta gasped and jumped away from where he was walking much too close for new acquaintances. 

“You’re making me a homewrecker?”

“Sh!” Hansol looked around in worry, but Yuta had little sympathy for cheaters. “It’s not like that at all.”

“No?” Yuta crossed his arms. He should give Kun lessons on wolves and their deep bonds. Totally fake news the coven leader was spreading.

“No. It’s a political match. She goes her ways, I go my ways, we only pretend for the packs.”

Yuta frowned. His heartbeat was steady and his voice even. It was unlikely he was lying.

“Would you let me confirm that? I’d hate to be that person for her, if you’re lying.”

“Confirm? How?”

“Just a small answer under bewitchment, so you can’t lie.”

“Only that one thing?”

“Yeah.” Hansol didn’t look too happy and Yuta laughed “Dude, if I wanted to harm you, I could have gotten into your head so many times already.”

“Alright, then, I guess.” The wolf sighed.

Yuta was an expert and had a grip on Hansol’s mind the moment their eyes met again. “You’re mated?”

“Yes.”

“But there’s no feelings and you both are free to pursue partners?”

“Yes.”

Yuta let go and Hansol shook his head a bit. It could feel a bit funny, for humans, especially when they were aware they were getting bewitched. For vampires, getting bewitched hurt like a bitch.

“So, you believe me now?”

“Sure. So, what exactly are you looking for with me then?”

Hansol shrugged. They had arrived at a small park, the stones crunching under their shoes. “I don’t know yet. I just knew you were interesting, when I saw you in the club.”

“So will I get some dick, or no?”

“Are you always this straight forward?”

“Will my answer influence the answer to my original question?”

Hansol laughed and nudged Yuta softly with his shoulder. The push was noticeable, which told volumes of how strong it was and somehow, that made Yuta’s stomach flutter. 

 

The answer to the question was, yes, Yuta did get some dick, it only took a bit longer to get there than what he was used to. But it was worth it.

Meeting up with Hansol became a regular thing, that slid into his life. Sometimes, it was meeting at the club and distracting him from his work, sometimes it was to go on walks. Hansol liked hiking by nature and Yuta found the scenery beautiful. There were plenty of mountains to climb around Seoul.

He sometimes noticed his clothing smelling extremely like Hansol, when he pulled it from his closet and Ten often complained there was the permanent scent of wolf to the apartment he and Taeyong shared. Taeyong didn’t mind, he only made Yuta retell romantic dates with a dreamy expression. Ten was only interested in the juicy parts that he was willing to offer up.

 

It was nice, really nice. Yuta always looked forward to meeting with Hansol and he didn’t care, that he was basically a dirty secret for the wolf and could never meet his pack. Hansol met Taeyong by chance and Taeyong gushed about how handsome his boyfriend was for three weeks after. But other than that, they never introduced their friends to each other. Yuta didn’t even officially call him his boyfriend. Sure, it sounded nice… but they couldn’t get serious feelings, so that was out of the question.

So, when Yuta returned home from a love hotel in the early morning hours and found Kun in their hallway, arms crossed and face stern, he almost screamed in surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to ask you what the hell you’re doing, Yuta.”

“What are you even talking about? I just came home!” And he was ready for his bed, whole body sore. But Kun seemed set on talking about something.

“Don’t play dumb. I’m asking you what you’re doing with Hansol? I thought you said you’d break it off, if it got serious? Yuta, I told you exactly why this wasn’t going to end well. Or do you want to get hurt?” Kun’s brows furrowed in worry now.

“It’s not serious…” Yuta tried, but he mulled the words over. It had been a few months since their first meeting and he still wasn’t bored of Hansol, rather he looked forward to meeting him more every time.

“You don’t believe that yourself, do you? I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, but I won’t sit around and watch yourself do this to you. I at least need to tell you, that this is a very bad idea.”

“It’s fine, though. He’s mated, so that bond thing you were talking about won’t happen, anyway.”

“He’s mated? But he scent-marks you?” Kun was genuinely puzzled. 

Yuta shrugged. Hansol had told him he liked marking him, because it calmed him down.

“He’s not in love with his mate, that’s why they’re both with other partners. It’s for politics, because both their packs were weakened by the Hunters and they needed an alliance.”

Kun nodded slowly. “Then I don’t think he has the mate-bond with his mate, that I was talking about. I’m not an expert on wolves, but if he doesn’t love her… he can still love you. So, please, think about it.”

“But what if I wanted to spend his lifetime with him?” Yuta challenged. He hadn’t given it much thought, but right now, he couldn’t imagine being without Hansol.

Kun took in a sharp breath. 

“Like I said, I can’t and won’t tell you how to live your life. It’s not my place. But please promise me to at least think about it thoroughly and then talk to him. As your coven leader and as your friend, I want you to be happy, so whatever makes you happy, I will support, if you’re really sure about it.”

Yuta felt tears choke him up, but he swallowed them down and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Of course. And if you need help to figure things out, just tell me.”

Yuta nodded.

 

The next time Yuta met up with Hansol at the club and clung onto him, while he watched the dance floor, he started thinking. About how much he loved to feel the heartbeat under his fingers. About how nice his warm body temperature was. About how Yuta filled the silence, when they were together, because Hansol didn’t talk much unlike him, but loved to listen to Yuta going on for hours. 

He thought about it, when they hiked up the same path they had taken before, because they wanted to see the flowers in full bloom and Hansol spread out a blanket in the middle and held still, as Yuta draped flowers over him and smiled softly for the camera, so the image could be preserved forever.

And now it was like it was starting to become clear, like when you polished over frosted glass in the winter. He had held his emotions back, because he thought he wasn’t allowed to have them. So it took him a bit, six months since he first met him to be precise, until he could really, openly say, that he was in love with Hansol. 

And because Yuta had always spoken his mind, when he could, he didn’t hesitate this time either.

 

They were looking over Suwon, from the top of the fortress, watching the sun set. Both their clothing was dusty from walking through the summer heat all day and Yuta was thankful for his lack of sweat, while the wolf quietly suffered.

He put his hand on top of Hansol’s, pushing their fingers against each other. No one really paid them any mind, everyone was watching the sun colour the sky pink, so Yuta leaned in closer, resting his chin on Hansol’s shoulder.

“You know? I didn’t want to, but I fell in love with you, Ji Hansol.”

Hansol’s heartbeat picked up and Yuta smiled to himself. Hansol had mentioned a few times, when he had smelled his scent change because of his mood and that was just beyond Yuta’s senses. But he had other ways to read him.

“You… you do?”

“Yep.” Yuta let the p pop off his lips and grinned, when Hansol turned his head. 

Hansol tried to pull his hand away, but Yuta wouldn’t let him. At first when they had started meeting, it had seemed like Hansol had more strength than him, but once Yuta actually tried, he easily overpowered the wolf.

“Yuta, I… I don’t live forever.”

“I know. I don’t care. I’ll be with you for all your life, if you want. I already made up my mind.”

Hansol stopped pulled away and started squeezing his hand harder, like to remind himself Yuta was there, was real. “I want to say that I can’t do that to you, that you deserve someone by your side for eternity. But I’m too selfish to, because I want you all for myself.”

“Perfect.” Yuta beamed “Should I wrap myself in a bow once we’re home, or is it fine like this?”

Hansol chuckled and tapped his nose how he liked to do. “I’ll take you however you want to!”

“Oh really? Against the wall then, please.” Yuta fluttered his lashes and watched Hansol’s cheeks dust pink.

“It’s impossible to have one romantic moment with you, isn’t it?”

“There’s different definitions of romantic!”

 

It seemed like the perfect happy end. 

Ten took an odd liking to Hansol, even going as far as to make him tease Yuta together when the wolf was over. Taeyong was like an excited high schooler with a severe case of hero worth ship, which was only slightly concerning. Kun kept his distance, but he never showed his disapproval, though Yuta knew he thought he was making a mistake. 

He disagreed. Because even if he wouldn’t have Hansol for the next 1,000 years, he’d at least have him for now. The memories they made now, he could cherish forever, the happiness he felt now, he would have missed otherwise. And he knew this wasn’t going to be forever, so he could prepare his heart for the break, so it wouldn’t hurt that bad, Yuta was sure of it.

 

“Are you really sure we aren’t lost? I can’t smell any tracks anymore whatsoever.” Yuta glanced around the thick threes around them.

“Because your smelling is terrible.”

“It’s not. I can smell blood types, you can’t.”

“But you’re back at tracking. So don’t worry, I know exactly where we are and how we’ll get back home from here.” Hansol assured. He had been away all week because of his work at the pack’s firm, the days of working at the club gone, unable to sneak away to see Yuta. To make up for that, they had travelled to Busan for the weekend, where Hansol and his pack originally came from.

It wasn’t a good place to visit and most supernaturals avoided the city like the plague, because the Hunters had cracked down on anyone living there not long ago, which was how Hansol’s pack had lost most of its members. But for a weekend that they mainly spent in the woods, it’d be fine.

“Fine, I trust you. And I also can go for another few days without going into a blood frenzy. But if you’ll starve or dehydrate, I don’t know what to do.”

“I won’t don’t worry. We’re here.” Hansol pushed another bush to the side and stepped into a clearing. Yuta followed, ignoring the thorns trying to bite through his shoes and felt his jaw drop in wonder.

“I didn’t know you could see the sea from here!” he whispered and rushed across the clearing to the edge of the rocks, where they dropped down into nothing, leaving a magnificent view over the ocean. “It’s beautiful!” 

Yuta turned to Hansol, who was smiling, a few steps away from him.

“I have another thing to show you. Don’t turn until I say so.”

As told, Yuta directed his eyes back to the water. He could see ships floating over the waves, either coming closer to the port, or leaving. A bridge to the outside world. He tried to hear what Hansol was doing, but there wasn’t much that would give it away, other than the rustling of clothes. 

And then, there was something coming closer, but it wasn’t a human, but rather paws hitting the ground… a wolf!

Yuta twirled around so quickly, he over-spun and his ears hadn’t betrayed him: it was a dark grey wolf, big, reaching Yuta’s waist easily, looking at him with familiar eyes.

He dropped to his knees and held out a hand, against which the wolf butted, and he started scratching behind his ears. 

He had asked Hansol before, if he could actually turn into a wolf, and Hansol hand confirmed that, but added that it left them vulnerable, prone to giving into instincts, which was why they only did it with their pack, or with their mates, because they’d never hurt them. 

Hansol had never said, that he loved him. Sometimes, Yuta wondered if he did, when he pulled him especially close, when he felt something was dangerous. When he caressed his hair with so much care, when he insisted on leaving his scent on him, or when they kissed tenderly. But he wasn’t sure and he wasn’t going to push Hansol. He didn’t need the words to confirm his own feelings.

But this, this was even better.

Yuta laughed, as the wolf started licking his hands. It was slobbery and kind of gross, but also really nice.

 

They never made it back to the city that evening, playing on the clearing until the sun had set, when Hansol pulled blankets from his backpack and Yuta pulled lube from his jeans, making his boyfriend roll his eyes, but very willingly put it to good use.

 

But, of course, Yuta never got to keep good things. 

It was three days after Hansol’s 26th birthday. He had been a bit quiet the last days, which wasn’t uncommon, because Hansol generally didn’t speak much. But the stress wrinkle between his eyebrows wouldn’t leave and that wasn’t normal. Yuta hadn’t seen him on the actual day, because he was with his pack, of course, but the day after. 

Looking at the pictures, it was obvious that six years had left Yuta completely unchanged, while Hansol’ face matured. But with the worry etched into his face, he looked older than 26 and Yuta didn’t like it. But he also didn’t want to pry when it wasn’t his place.

But when the door rang in the evening, when neither he, nor Ten, with whom he lived together, expected anyone and the unmistakable scent of wolf, specifically Hansol, flooded the flat when Ten opened, Yuta knew something was up.

Ten hadn’t finished hollering for him, when he was already by the door. Hansol was drenched, water dripping off his coat. Yuta gently pulled him inside, closing the door.

“Come on, let’s get you something dry, you’ll catch a cold like this. Why didn’t you take an umbrella, it’s been raining all day, you know how November weather is?” Yuta fretted, but Hansol pulled away from his hands.

Yuta looked up at his face in surprise, confusion, but he wished he hadn’t, when he saw the pained expression, the tears in Hansol’s eyes that weren’t masked by the drops of water on his face.

“We have to stop seeing each other.”

There was no heart beating in his chest anymore, but the blood was still running in his veins. But at those words, it felt like it had frozen.

“What?” the words were soft, unbelieving. 

Yuta was ready to let Hansol go… in a few decades, once they had done everything together they wanted to. Not right now.

“My pack… there’s tensions. There’s doubt the union is stable. I have to put them first. I have to show them… that they can rely on me, can rely on the others. If we break apart, I don’t think we can make it. We don’t have the ability to rely on bewitching anyone, we have to get by, make money, care for the children.”

Yuta closed his eyes. It all made sense to him, what Hansol was telling him. But he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t care for the pack that he had never met. 

“We have to make… make it work. Somehow. And when I’m still with you, I can never give her a chance. I’m… I’m so sorry.”

Anger took over. Hansol had to choose and he chose his family, even though they were bad to him, didn’t care for his feelings and made him mate with someone he didn’t love and who didn’t love him.

“But… I love you.” Yuta’s voice broke.

“I love you, too, I love you so, so much. But we both know this was set up for a bad ending the moment we started it.”

They did. “But there would have been more years, more… time.”

“This is just as hard on me, as it is on you. But don’t you think it’s easier to let go now? You’ll remember we like this, young and healthy, not old and… dying.”

“I don’t care. I’d love you even when you were old and dying.” Yuta snarled. Hansol smiled painedly. “Why do you choose them over me? When they were nothing but selfish?”

“Because I was selfish, too. I have to forgive them for being selfish for bigger reasons. I was only selfish for myself.”

Yuta gulped. 

“It’s okay, if you’re angry with me. If it makes it easier to let me go, please hate me.”

“I am angry, Ji Hansol, you better believe that. I’m furious and I want to rip your head off, but then the flat would reek of type AB.” Hansol took the hand Yuta was waving and gently held it. “But I could never hate you, you idiot. Even though you’re dumb and making the wrong decision.”

Yuta ripped free and fell around Hansol’s neck, wet coat and everything, unable to hold back his tears.

He didn’t know how long he was sobbing in the hallway, but Hansol caressed his hair and stroked his back, until there were no tears left. 

“Ten?” Hansol softly called and Yuta heard soft footsteps from the living room. 

He didn’t struggle, as Hansol gently pushed him into his coven mate’s arms. 

“I’ll leave now.”

“Wait, Hansol?”

“Hm?”

“If you ever need help… or maybe your kids, one day… I’m always here.”

Hansol forced a small smile on his face and nodded. 

The door opened and closed and immediately, the scent got weaker. The thought that it’d never get stronger again made Yuta’s throat close up, the feeling of suffocating despite it being impossible for him taking over.

“Do we still have that fancy ass whiskey Kun got from his American business partner?” Yuta tightened his grip on Ten. Ten, who wasn’t his family, but his friend, his coven-mate, and who was always there for him, no matter how much they loved to tease each other all the time. 

“Sure do.”

“Let’s get drunk. Oh, and I want membership for your bitter singles club. Temporary at least.”

“Of course. You’ll get special membership. With a sparkling member card.”

Yuta stared at Ten. The Thai rubbed his arm, eyes searching his face. But even if he wanted to, he was physically unable to produce more tears right now, so he put on a smile and turned towards the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, erm, I have no idea, if you can see the sea the way I described it anywhere close to Busan. Just… fyi. 
> 
> It was either this, or cherry blossoms, but that just felt too cliché.


	6. Chapter 6

The sun shone brightly through the window of Yuta’s room, casting Sicheng’s shadow on the floor. He had asked, if he could see Yuta’s room, because he was curious what his interests were.

It had made Yuta a lot more excited, than it should have, and after hiding the gifts for Sicheng extra well (namely in Ten’s room), he had invited him in with a bright smile.

But he was going to cling to any chance to spend more time with Sicheng and get to know him better, and hopefully make him interested in himself in return.

“Rising Gods of the East? Is this a new religion they came up with recently?” Sicheng’s fingers hovered over the photobooks in Yuta’s shelf “Are you religious?” 

Had Ten asked the same, or even Jaehyun, Yuta would have picked a fight on the spot. But the question was so genuine, the interest shining in Sicheng’s eyes, that Yuta couldn’t hold back a small chuckle.

“Well, honestly, it’s sort of like a religion. But no, those two, or five, normal guys. They’re singers. The most successful boy band South Korea has ever produced and honestly, they’re kind of like gods.”

“May I look at the book?”

“Of course. Everyone should know about TVXQ, I’ll answer any question you have.”

“Thank you.” Sicheng pulled the photobook out and let his eyes scan over the cover with unconcealed curiosity.

“They’re very handsome! But the styling is so… surprising.”

Yuta sat down on the floor next to Sicheng. “Oh, yes, the middle 00’s were an interesting time for fashion here.”

Sicheng looked up at Yuta “Did you wear things like this, then?”

Yes. There were pictures. And it was time to burn those, as soon as possible, before Sicheng got to see them.

“The group was founded in 2003, under SM Entertainment.”

Sicheng smiled knowingly, but let Yuta change the topic. He listened and chipped in with new questions every now and then, soaking up all the information Yuta offered. He knew he was going off like a spark in a dry forest and most people would have either been fast asleep at this point, or decided he was completely mental.

Yuta might have fallen a little bit more in love, when Sicheng instead wanted to listen to some songs and watch some music videos. Sicheng let him cuddle into his side, despite being a little stiff and Yuta felt full of happiness.

 

Which was fun, while it lasted.

“Someone has killed Seohyun.”

Seohyun, youngest, but one of the most powerful and cruel members of Taeyeon’s coven. Yuta didn’t want to believe the news, but Taeyong looked like he had seen a ghost and Ten’s face was hard, so there was no doubt they were speaking the truth.

“Sicheng, would you mind training the rest of the coven, who’s not trained in martial arts, some basics for self-defence?” Kun asked. His voice was overly calm, face put in a serene expression, which meant he was putting on his leader front. 

And honestly, if it weren’t for that, Yuta would have probably panicked, completely flipped. This had never happened before and he felt severely underequipped to deal with any of this. So he was thankful for at least having a strong leader, like Kun, to rely on, and an experienced vampire, like Sicheng to help them out.

It wasn’t just that he was more than fond of Sicheng, but he had shown multiple times, that things that were sending Yuta into panic didn’t phase him, having lived too many years to still be surprised. And then on the other hand, he was so genuinely puzzled and fascinated by modern technology. That was what made him so interesting to Yuta, so lovable.

And also so different from anyone he ever knew. He had never felt like he was both a senior to someone, and them being the senior at the same time. How Sicheng switched from cute and confused to confident and self-assured gave Yuta whiplash, making him feel completely out of his element. But it was intriguing.

“Sure, we’ve been doing that from time to time already.” Sicheng agreed easily, as expected the least bothered. Lucas was quiet, Jungwoo was sniffling and Jaehyun’s jaw muscles were tensed.

“Patrols have to be in pairs from now on, I don’t want you to roam the streets alone, when there’s a killer this capable out there, okay?” Kun scanned their faces. Yuta certainly also didn’t want to be out there with a killer this capable out there.

 

Ten moved them into a bigger flat, and Yuta was now sharing the bathroom with Sicheng, but was otherwise still rather unsuccessful in his pursues. The courting gifts were somewhere in the boxes he hadn’t unpacked yet, because he was lazy. And also a bit discouraged. Who even gave courting gifts, anyway? 

Not that Yuta had any better ideas, on the contrary, the more time he spent with Sicheng, the less confident in his flirting abilities he became, because Sicheng never caught on the subtle hints and skinship, and he felt uncomfortable coming onto him with a suggestive line. And he couldn’t even complain, because he still enjoyed every minute spent with Sicheng to the fullest extent. 

Yuta definitely had it bad.

The big flat was a blessing, because it had really had gotten too crowded. But it was also a curse, because Yuta was agitated already (they all were, when there was the constant risk of being… murdered) and now, his surroundings were new and he hated it. It left him roll around his bed restlessly and woke fears he had thought long beaten. 

 

Yuta jerked up in his bed with a silent scream. The room was dark, and he took a second to remember where he was. Right. New flat. His room. Safety. He closed his eyes and carefully laid back down, but immediately, the scenes were back in his mind.

He tried pushing them away, but the voices of rough Yakuza men didn’t leave him, the sensation of hands holding him down, of beating him, felt too real. He quickly sat up, opening his eyes to dispel the demons of the night.

The soft music from the TV came from the living room and Yuta decided to look who was watching in the middle of the night. It was 4 am, so Sicheng was normally asleep by now and he kept the volume off at night, because he thought it was too loud, his ears so sensitive in the silence of the night.

Yuta shuffled into the living room and found Jungwoo in pretzel-form on the sofa, wrapped in a mint green blanket, eyes on the cartoon on the screen. 

“Hey.”

Jungwoo startled and his eyes darted over to Yuta. “Oh, hi. Did I wake you up? I’m sorry!” Jungwoo quickly turned off the TV, looking panicked.

“No, don’t worry. Can’t sleep?”

“No, I took a long nap in the afternoon, so I can’t sleep now.”

Yuta flopped on the sofa next to Jungwoo. The light helped his cramped up muscles relax and the fear that seemed to choke him up slowly fell off him. At least Jungwoo’s reason for being unable to sleep was harmless, it was a relief to Yuta. He wouldn’t wish those nightmares to anyone. Well, maybe to the person how thought trying to start a revolution of the supernatural was a brilliant idea.

“You can turn it back on, if you want.”

“Yes? Thanks.” Jungwoo pressed the remote and the happy pictures returned. 

Yuta eventually dozed back off to the soft melody of children’s program and endless happy endings, into a dreamless sleep.

 

So there was that to get used to, and then there were Sicheng’s weird bathroom habits. Yuta had never bothered locking the door, it was simply unnecessary, when everyone had senses more than capable of telling if there was someone rummaging about the bathroom. No one of their coven did it, so why do it now?

He was shampooing his hair, trying to think of sunshine and happy thoughts, as he massaged his scalp and wondered, if his roots were getting too long. He should probably dye it soon, nothing too strong chemically speaking, though, the lengths felt very dead, no matter how much conditioner he lathered on them.

The water drowned out the sound of the door opening, so Yuta remained unaware of his guest, until the shower curtain was pulled to the side, and Sicheng poked his head into the shower. 

Yuta screamed.

“Oh, sorry, I should have announced myself. I thought this was ideal, we can wash each other’s back!” Sicheng beamed, like he had won the lottery and held up a towel. Yuta had half a mind to angle his body away from the other, but Sicheng seemed completely unbothered. “Unless you don’t want to?” the smile died on his face, and Yuta’s brain decided to ditch him, so the words just fell from his mouth.

“No, sure, we can do that.”

Now, there were many things Yuta was, but a prude wasn’t one of them. However with Sicheng, he overall felt like a teenager experiencing his first love, and taking a shower together hadn’t been what Yuta had planned as bonding time.

“You’re already soaked, I should start.” Sicheng suggested, completely at ease, while Yuta internally freaked out. The shower wasn’t big, so he felt Sicheng’s skin rub against his arm, perfectly smooth and slippery from the water, when he shuffled around Yuta to get to the selection of soaps on the side board – most of them stemming from one of Sicheng’s many shopping sprees for fun new inventions he had missed.

“Do you like Cherry blossom? I think you seem like a cherry blossom guy.” Sicheng turned his head to Yuta curiously, his long hair starting to get wet and cling to his shoulders.

Yuta cleared his throat. “Sure, they always remind me of Japan.”

“In a good way?” Sicheng held the bottle of body wash.

“Yes, definitely.”

“Perfect!” he cheered and started soaking the towel under the spray of water, before adding the soap. Yuta still felt mildly awkward, but bathing around the year 0 probably hadn’t involved nice bathrooms and personal privacy, thus Sicheng’s complete lack of shyness. God damn it also hadn’t in the year 1900, Yuta shouldn’t be so self-conscious, but he couldn’t help it. Especially not, when he let his gaze drop down a little, hoping Sicheng was pre-occupied with his soap and towel, and noticed how strong the muscle was, that stretched over his shoulders, chest, stomach and…

“I read about hot springs in Japan. Since you’re from Osaka, you probably enjoyed those a lot, right?” Sicheng finished wringing the towel and Yuta snapped his eyes up from where he had been staring at the other’s crotch a little too intensely.

“Uhhh yes, yes, sometimes.”

“Really, only sometimes? I think I would have moved into one, if I had them.” Sicheng softly giggled. Yuta turned and he started rubbing the towel over Yuta’s back with just enough strength that it felt good, not painful. The image of Sicheng soaking in hot springs for hours was very cute. He could envision him as the owner of one, to ensure he had permanent access, that would be so cute!

“When I was still human, I couldn’t go there and I don’t like it when my skin gets too wrinkly.” It was probably going to be today, but hey… Sicheng pressed with more force, massaging out a hard part in Yuta’s shoulders and he couldn’t help the small groan that left his lips.

“Is that fine? You’re pretty tense here, if might help if I massaged that out.”

Yuta nodded and Sicheng started repeating the motion, hands experienced, applying just enough pressure and Yuta felt himself get a bit light headed, as the good feeling of his body relaxing took over. When he was finished, Yuta was slightly disappointed, that it was over. 

Sicheng washed the towel out and Yuta stood there, slightly awkward. He was as clean as he got, so now, he had to return the favour. That alone was enough for another mild breakdown. Internally, of course, he couldn’t look uncool, when Sicheng was the embodiment of calm. Yuta found his eyes travelling down the lean body, yet again, because he had no self-control and art deserved to be appreciated…

“If you want me to turn so you can see better, just ask.”

Yuta sputtered and almost fell backwards out of the shower – which would have probably still been less embarrassing. 

Sicheng grinned, looking pleased with himself and Yuta huffed, as he took the towel from his hands. That was a line that could have come from him, if he didn’t feel like the heroine of a Shoujo Manga, that didn’t dare give her confession letter to the hot crush in her grade. How dare he…

“I think we should wash your hair first, it’s in the way.” Yuta started fumbling with the shampoo bottles, and Sicheng reached over him, pointing out the right one for him. 

“I thought about cutting it, since all of you are wearing it short now? I didn’t see many men with long hair, sometimes I get looked at funny.”

“It’s been out of fashion for a bit now, came from the west.”

“I noticed many trends do. Do you think I’d look good?”

Yuta turned to Sicheng and made the Chinese crouch down a bit, so he could get his hair properly wet without his arms getting tired too quickly. 

“A face like yours can pull off any hairstyle and look dashing, so you should choose what you feel most comfortable with.”

Sicheng hummed “I should visit one of those hairdressers I’ve been seeing, then. Maybe Chitti could recommend one, I’m sure his hair takes a lot of skill.”

“It mainly takes a straight ruler and a steady hand.” Yuta chuckled. 

 

“Who’re you texting?” Yuta leaned over the kitchen table to look onto Ten’s phone’s display. He tried to hide it, but Yuta had already seen what he needed to. “The hot-and-tall Hunter? Still? How many weeks has it been?” he wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Shut up. It’s just… for information purposes. So we’re on top of what goes on in Department Four.”

“I think there’s something else, that’s topping in this situation, but hey.”

Ten grumbled and flipped the phone shut, finally looking at Yuta properly. “Okay so maybe it’s been a while. But he’s simply great company. He’s funny, has impeccable manners, a downright gentleman, he’s fucking hot and he gives me great orgasms. I don’t see any need to get rid of him right now.”

“Hey, I didn’t say so, and please don’t kill your ex-boy-toys, that’s bad publicity.”

“Boy-Toy is such a degrading name.” Ten frowned, playing with the luck-charm strapped to his old phone.

“Boyfriend then?” Yuta grinned and the frown on Ten’s face deepened, but he didn’t deny it, which was telling Yuta volumes. “Just make sure you don’t end up with a stake through your heart, okay?”

“Yeah, I will. Kun already promised to kill me with his own hands, if I get myself staked.”

Yuta pursed his lips. “I’m not so much against the idea of you dating a Hunter, because if it’s love, it’s love… and I’m pretty sure you can take care of yourself. Kun’s just worrying.”

“Yeah, I know. But we aren’t dating, I don’t like him like that. Anyway, what about you and Sicheng? Any development I missed?”

Yuta sighed “Well, not really, I’ve slacked off, but we took a shower together and I now know he’s a shower and I don’t know what to do with that information.”

“Why on earth did you take a shower together?” Ten asked, when Yuta really wanted to talk a bit more about Sicheng’s dick.

He shrugged “I think Sicheng has old bathroom-habits? He just came inside and suggested washing each other’s backs.”

Ten’s eyes slowly got bigger with every word. Yuta wondered if he was missing the point here… 

“Oh, I see. And you were practicing martial arts together, right? Not to mention all the technology-lessons…”

“Yep.” Yuta was definitely spending plenty of time with his crush – it was great.

“Hm. Interesting.”

 

Yuta stirred and stirred and stirred, but the blood wouldn’t properly interfuse with his smoothie. The dark red kept rising back up to layer on top, smelling offensively like metal. It was just typical. He had had a shitty night – well he only had had shitty nights since moving, but this one had been particularly shitty - and now his smoothie wasn’t working out. 

Maybe Jungwoo would want to drink this… Yuta hated the taste of pure blood. He hadn’t when he was younger, but the longer he was on the packaged-blood diet, the worse the taste became. B used to be fine, but now, even that wasn’t really to his liking anymore. Didn’t they say, old people became pickier? It clearly was the case with him.

The idea of going back to bewitching party-goers and taking their blood in the backstreet of the club was enough to make Yuta gag a little. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that again. This was so much better. Plus, Vitamins from the fruit surely were good, even when you were undead.

“Jungwoo? You’re feeding today, right?” Yuta asked loudly, knowing the younger would hear him where he was on his phone on the sofa in the next room.

As expected, a moment later Jungwoo poked his head into the kitchen.

“Yes, why?”

“I tried this new recipe with cream, but the blood and the cream make a pretty bad combo and I don’t like pure blood. Would you like to drink this?” Yuta gestured to the glass and the moment Jungwoo had located it, his eyes turned bright red.

He held his hand in front of his mouth, where his fangs would be showing now, to speak “I’d love to, thank you.” Good manner, really. The problem was just, that your fangs shouldn’t come out unintentionally in the first place.

“No problem.” Yuta smiled and watched Jungwoo dart through the kitchen and sniff the mixture, leaving out a small sigh of happiness, before he started sipping it with the straw provided, starting with the top layer. 

“Say… you don’t have much control over your vampire-state, do you?” Yuta voiced his observations.

“Vampire-state?” Jungwoo asked, a slight lisp creeping into his words, something that young vampires often struggled with, some taking decades to shake it off.

“I’m talking about the red eyes and the fangs. You didn’t mean for them to come out, right?”

Jungwoo shook his head, looking a bit sheepish.

Yuta hummed. Kun had said that Jungwoo’s mentor had neglected her job of teaching him the ins and outs greatly, only making sure he knew the basics and wouldn’t kill anyone accidentally. The vampire-state, or whatever you liked to call it, was definitely hard to master. Yuta had worked with Taeyong on it, with Jaehyun, even with Lucas, who had already been quite well-rounded when he had joint them.

And he also remembered how hard he, Momo and Mina had practiced, back then.

“Is that bad?” Jungwoo asked, the blood already gone from the smoothie.

“Hm, not bad per se, but it could become a problem. The red eyes are the number one trait that makes us recognisable, after all. And they can come out, when you’re emotional. If you can’t will them away, you’re pretty vulnerable.”

“I…I didn’t realise.”

“Done worry. If no one ever told you, how could you have known? If you’re fine with that, I can give you a few tips on how to get it under control.”

Jungwoo nodded eagerly “I’d love to. I don’t want to be a burden to the coven in any way.”

“That sounds like you’re still a guest here.” Yuta laughed. “Kun and Ten would hate if one of their kids felt uncomfortable, you know?”

“Are… are you sure? I don’t want to impose.”

“You aren’t. Don’t worry. And as part of the coven, you’re welcome to be a bit of a burden from time to time.”

Jungwoo smiled such a bright and beautiful smile, Yuta felt some of the tiredness from not being able to sleep more than a few hours at end fall off him.

 

“Tai Chi is very cleansing for the mind and soul. And you can strengthen muscles you need for more aggressive attacks, so it’s a wonderful addition.” Sicheng explained, while Yuta looked through the CD collection that was only partly unpacked. He clearly remembered owning something with peaceful music, but all he found were KPop and JPop albums. A vintage HOT one, signed. He could probably make a fortune off this, right? 

“I definitely want to work more on it.” Yuta nodded. Oh, this looked promising, a cover with trees and flowers.

“Great! I’ll run you through some moves. We can also add some stretching, that’s always good for the body.”

“I’m afraid I’m as flexible as a stone.”

Sicheng chuckled “If you work hard on it, it’ll soon get better. There’s many places to use flexibility, after all.” Was that an innuendo? Was Yuta ready for more innuendos from Sicheng, when he himself didn’t dare make them yet? The answer was no. “Do we get music from the shiny plates?” And there they were, back to adorable confusion.

“Hopefully. If no one changed any of the settings of this…” Yuta sighed and turned the stereo on. The only one who knew how this thing worked was Lucas and now Jungwoo. Well, Jaehyun wasn’t too terrible. And Kun might be able to fix it with a lot of sighing, staring at settings with a worried expression and the patience only he had. But Yuta considered himself a lost cause. Not as lost as Ten, but almost.

Lucky for Yuta, no one had changed anything.

Not much later, the flat was flooded with peaceful tunes and Sicheng started demonstrating moves. He gracefully worked through them and Yuta hoped he didn’t look like an elephant copying them. The goal was to be at least as graceful as a rhino. 

“Didn’t they make you do exercises in school? Or don’t they do that anymore? How old are you, anyway?” Sicheng asked, as he rolled back his shoulders and Yuta’s joints cracked.

“School’s pretty long ago and I always hated it, I was born 1880.”

“The Greek used to say a healthy mind lives in a healthy body, so if you work on your body, your mind will get better, too. It’s all connected, anyway. Yin and Yang, the five elements, the stars…”

Yuta hummed and pulled his arm up how Sicheng did. Well, he tried to.

“Did you live in antique Greek, by any chance?” Yuta asked. Sicheng might be old enough.

“No.” Sicheng chuckled. “I actually didn’t hear about them until they were long history. China didn’t open to the west for long and I didn’t really know western philosophy was a thing for almost just as long. So I unfortunately missed a lot of that, while moving up and down China.”

“China’s a big country, though. You probably didn’t get bored, did you?”

“No, never.”

“Do you miss it?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ve not been actively been away for long enough. But I probably will, in the future. But I also don’t think we’ll be stuck here forever, so at one point I’ll be able to return. Political situations never are forever. Any emperor ever calling out his reign to be for eternity has been wrong so far. Do you miss Japan?”

Yuta hummed “A bit. I miss my sire sometimes, but we can text now, with our phones. The language, I kind of miss.”

Sicheng nodded “I’m glad to have Kun in the coven, and Lucas, though his Mandarin is a bit funny.”

“Where are you originally from? You remember, right?”

“Yes, of course I remember! I was born in Chang’an, or Xi’an, as they call it now, the capital.”

Yuta clearly remembered Beijing as the capital of China, but it hadn’t always been, had it? Tokyo also hadn’t always been the capital. Sicheng noticed his confusion and laughed.

“I know, it’s no longer the capital and it hasn’t for some time. But when I was born, it was. My father was a high-ranking scholar at the court of Emperor Wu of Han, so I grew up close to the palace, with all the royal advisor, scholar and military kids.”

“Wow, I feel like a peasant now.”

Sicheng chuckled “I’m sure you’re not.”

“I sort of am, my family really wasn’t anything to brag about.”

Sicheng hummed “Well, I don’t think that matters. I wouldn’t gain anything from going around bragging that I knew some prince from Han dynasty, either.”

“You knew a prince?” Yuta felt more and more like the peasant he had mentioned before by the minute. Honestly, Sicheng had such sophisticated beauty, he could easily pass as a fairy tale price, so why not be with a real one? The prince was probably uglier than Sicheng…

“Yeah, there were lots of them, the lower ranking ones could leave the palace pretty much unattended. He was my first boyfriend, so of course I remember.” 

Yuta was at a loss for words for a second. 

“It didn’t last very long, because he got married, but who wouldn’t want a princess, right? I can’t blame him.”

“I’d rather have you, over a thousand princesses.” Smooth. Yuta was so off his flirting game with Sicheng, it was starting to physically hurt. 

Sicheng cocked his head and eyed Yuta curiously. “Thank you. I personally would also prefer you.”

Luckily, Yuta didn’t need air anymore, or he might have suffocated on the spot and Ten would have made fun of him at his funeral. 

“Your legs are pretty stiff, don’t you think?” Sicheng smoothly changed the topic and Yuta screamed, when he mercilessly pushed his body into positions it hadn’t been made to take.

 

[from 10 out of 10] Taeil’s missing, can you send Sicheng, don’t want to go alone

 

Yuta stared at his phone screen for a moment, before falling into action. It was only normal for Ten to ask for Sicheng, but a pang of worry wouldn’t leave Yuta, as he pulled his bathrobe around himself and rushed down the hall, the long and relaxing shower forgotten for now.

“Sicheng? Ten texted me. Taeil’s missing, you know? Our blood supplier and the kid you once rescued?” Yuta called against the closed door, knowing Sicheng wouldn’t have trouble understanding him.

It was ripped open a second later and Yuta stumbled back a step.

“Yes, I know him.”

“Ten needs you at his flat, he told me.”

Sicheng nodded, face serious “Anything else?”

“No. Uh. Be safe.”

“I will, thank you. Do I just meet him there?”

“Yes, apparently.”

 

Yuta skipped the shower, deeming it unnecessary and a waste of time. Instead, he stole Ten’s computer and tried to find news of murder or anything else with the help of Jungwoo, that might point him Taeil’s direction, but nothing recent fit.

He tried texting Ten, but there was no reply, he tried Taeyong, but he was just as clueless. Jungwoo didn’t even know Taeil personally, but he looked just as worried, which was kind of him and also made Yuta worry even more, because there was no one there to stop him, or call his bullshit out.

 

After a bit over an hour, the door announced someone coming home and Yuta flung himself into the hallway, almost into Sicheng, who steadied him with a hand on his arm to keep from smashing into him.

“Did you find him?”

Sicheng’s face was dark and he shook his head. “There was his blood in the flat and his window was clearly broken, but there was no lingering scent of strangers. Ten called the police, because he still had his dancing kid.”

“How much blood?” Yuta asked. He didn’t personally know Taeil very well, but they all were extremely fond of him, because he didn’t think vampires were some evil horror creatures and helped them at the risk of his own job by slightly illegally getting blood from the blood bank and re-selling it to them.

“Not enough for him to have bled out, but serious damage.” Sicheng explained. 

“So, death, if he goes untreated. Or possible death to turn him.” Yuta concluded. Sicheng had said the scent was too faint, but Yuta still wondered, if maybe someone who could track would have been able to follow it… it had been his goal to learn how to do that, at one point in his life. That could have come in handy now. 

But no use crying over spilt milk, was there?

“Exactly. It’s like a puzzle you can figure out, you know? Do you have a map of Seoul and its surroundings? Because I have a suspicion, where we might be able to find him.” Sicheng’s eyes sparkled and Yuta felt a smile tug on his lips at how cute he looked with excitement fuelling him on.

“I think I can find you one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I heard the wish for a royal Sicheng, but I decided not to do it, because there’s was no Dong dynasty in China and coming up with something completely new would mess with the idea to have a somewhat realistic setting, that I chose for this AU, not to mention I already keep a long-ass list to not forget anything. TT TT
> 
> Instead, I looked up historical figures with his family name 董 (Wikipedia is with me 24/7 writing this stuff) and I was delighted to find a Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒, who was a scholar during the Han dynasty, living 179-104 BC and promoting Confucianism as the official ideology, which sort of fits with Sicheng’s timeline in this so – tada, there we have inspiration for his father. I don’t know much about the Han dynasty, so I decided to just write it to fit my story, this is not 100% historically accurate. I decided to make Sicheng’s birthyear 154 BC, if anyone’s interested. 
> 
> And I plan for a proper flashback, like the ones we got from Yuta, but I’m not really sure how to fit it in yet, so the next chapter will also be 2018, after all, we have lots of action starting now~


	7. Chapter 7

Seoul had far less forests than it used to thirty years ago and the change of seasons always gave nature new faces. But some things never changed, trees older than Yuta keeping the place consistent and familiar, as they strode through the underwood.

There was a faint scent of wolf in the air, which was to be expected, but it was much duller than it normally should be, after so many packs had fled Seoul for a quieter place in another city. It was understandable, maybe even wise, but Kun and Ten were strongly opposed to leaving and Yuta accepted that. If there was anything they could do, they should stay.

Sicheng was leading the party, consisting of Jungwoo, Yuta, Taeyong and him after they had separated to cover more ground, but stay safe. They were combing through the leaves, looking for a possible hide-out, where one might put a kidnapped human, possible newly-turned. 

It felt good to do something and out here, Yuta could freely walk without his mask on, the group giving him security. 

“How did you get that idea?” Jungwoo asked, eyes trained on the ground. Yuta had watched Sicheng disappear in his room last night, map under his arm, humming softly.

“I’m interested in that kind of police work, it’s really fun to solve, so I looked at the city and where it’d be easy to bring someone. This is a good place, because the subway goes this way without much detours, so, it’s easy to come without anyone noticing.” Sicheng explained. “And a forest really is the best place to hid anything.”

“Wow, that’s so cool, how do you know things like that?” Taeyong awed. Relatable. Yuta also awed on a daily basis. He kicked a thick log aside, but there was nothing underneath.

“I used to work for the police and it’s always been a fascination, so I learnt a lot on it.”

“You must love criminal dramas then!” Jungwoo chirped.

“Actually, no, because he keeps complaining about them being too obvious and scientifically inaccurate.” Yuta couldn’t hold a fond chuckle.

The sound of Taeyong’s phone ringing ripped through the air and Taeyong squeaked in surprise, before patting himself down to find the source of the noise and answer it.

“Jaehyunnie?”

Yuta listened in, it wasn’t hard to overhear a telephone conversation.

“Hey, we found Taeil and some other girl. How about we meet up where we were supposed to? We’ll bring them both.”

Lucas was whining about the smell in the distance.

Taeyong looked up at Sicheng, question on his face and the older nodded.

“Okay, we’ll be there in a moment.”

“Perfect, see you then.”

 

Ten, Jaehyun, Taeil and the girl reeked of – for a lack of a better word – death. No wonder Lucas complained about the smell. The girl also looked pretty dead.

“She attacked us, but she’ll be fine.” Ten explained, when Taeyong took her arm and it flopped back down lifelessly. 

Taeil looked a bit overwhelmed, but was holding up pretty well, in Yuta’s opinion. He wasn’t too happy about Sicheng fuzzing over him, looking for injuries and asking, if he was hungry, or things were too intense. He knew the feeling all too well: jealousy. Of course, it was stupid, ridiculous even, he had no right to think of Sicheng as his and he was just being friendly, concerned, how Kun would have been, too.

But Yuta was an emotional, rather than a rational person, as proven time and time again.

“I have to leave and teach my lessons. I’ll also let the girls know about our findings.” Ten explained looking around. “Sicheng, Yuta, I trust you bring the kids back fine?”

Yuta rolled his eyes. “Of course, Ten-Ma, we’ll protect them with our lives.”

“Hey! I’m the dad in this family.” Ten stabbed his finger into Yuta’s sternum.

“Don’t worry, Chitti, they’ll be perfectly fine.” Sicheng happily announced. Taeyong had started wrapping the currently dead girl into his cardigan, so she wasn’t freezing. Not that it was all that cold, or dead people generally froze…

“Alright then. Oh, and don’t forget to tell Kun please. Bye.” And he was gone in a blur.

Yuta sighed. “Alright guys. I’m calling Kun to tell him the news.”

“Ten told me that I’m reported as missing to the police? We might want to do something about that.” Taeil chipped in. Sicheng pursed his lips, thinking.

“We should. Let’s find a better place, where we can sit down and talk?”

“There’s an inn close to the subway station, that has food.” Jaehyun suggested and they headed back towards civilisation. 

Sicheng stuck close to Taeil, and Yuta stuck close to Sicheng, while Jaehyun led ahead, Taeyong still worrying over the girl on his back. Jungwoo looked a little green in the face, so he and Lucas were tailing at the end of the small caravan. 

Overall, they looked suspicious as fuck. 

Yuta tried calling their leader, but Kun’s phone went unanswered. The most likely reason for that was, that he had died, but before announcing this, Yuta tried calling the flower shop their leader currently worked at. He had more luck there.

“Hello, this is Flower Paradise Sinsadong, how may I help you?” the voice of a woman cheerfully came over the line.

“Hi.” Yuta chirped “It’s Yuta. Is Qian Kun there by any chance?”

“Uh, yes, sure. Would you like to talk to him?”

“Yes, that’s be amazing, thank you.” Wow, Yuta was really such a well behaved friend, the promotion was only minutes away with charming people like him calling for Kun.

Yuta heard the woman inform Kun, that there was a Yuta calling and if he had a moment. Then there was a crashing sound and a moment later, Kun’s stressed voice wheezed into the phone. “What happened?”

“Chill, nothing bad.”

“Sounds pretty bad. Do you need me to come?”

Yuta looked at Sicheng, but the Chinese shook his head “No, stay where you are. We have Taeil and we have some other girl, we don’t know the name of, both have been turned.”

“How’s Taeil? Is he alright?”

Yuta pulled the phone from his ear and thrusted it Taeil’s direction. “Say something that confirms you’re fine, please.”

Taeil looked slightly startled, but fell into action quick enough “Hi, Kun? I’m fine… I think. Nothing too terrible. Everything seemed a bit too loud, but that’s it.”

Yuta took his phone back. “See? We’ve got it under control.” Yuta wasn’t sure he had had anything under control his whole life, but hey. Fake it till you make was a motto to stick to, if you didn’t want others to notice your failings and shortcomings.

“Thank god. What about the girl? Who’s she?”

“Yeah, about her – I have no clue. Apparently, she attacked Ten and Jaehyun, so she’s currently out of commission.”

More sighing from Kun.

“Okay, we need to let Taeyeon’s coven know.”

“No worries, we have it all covered, Ten will tell Hyoyeon.”

There was a moment of silence, before Kun spoke again. “Wow, I’m impressed, you did really well. But how will you get the body back into Seoul?”

Damn, they had been doing so well without supervision. 

“Uh….”

“Tell Ten that Hyoyeon needs to send someone to pick her up with a car.” Kun easily offered the solution to the current misery, like always.

“I’ll do that. Lucas? Can you text Ten to make the girls send someone to pick our girl up?”

“Will do.”

 

They arrived at the Inn, that was close enough to the tree line that with a bit of flocking around Jaehyun, they could mask the unconscious girl they were carrying from the public eye and Taeyong took care of the waitress that came over to seat them, so they could hide away in the back of the relatively empty restaurant. 

“So.” Jaehyun asked, once they had placed the girl against the side. Her neck was turning an ugly shade of yellow to brown from the healing. Yuta shook his head and looked another direction. 

“So, Taeil. You good?” Yuta asked, making his voice light. Ten wasn’t here, Kun wasn’t here, so he was the next coven member to lead them. He had to be nice to the new guy, that was stealing Sicheng’s attention.

“Yes.” Taeil confirmed “Just a bit worried, to be honest.”

“That’s understandable. So, uh… what happened?” Yuta sorted his thoughts “Right. Renjun told Ten you were missing, after his dancing lessons, unknowing Ten knew you, too. So they checked your flat, with Sicheng, and found… a broken window and blood?” Yuta turned to Sicheng to confirm, who nodded, face serious, like he was deep in thought. He might be puzzling together clues again, Yuta’s brain supplied. 

“Since Renjun was there, they ended up calling the police, no clue how Ten slipped through interrogations, but he did, and now you’re on the missing people list. We didn’t manage to track down who took you, unfortunately, but Sicheng investigated a bit last night and so, we found you.”

Jaehyun took over now, having been there first person “Someone had you under bewitchment, but they were younger than Ten, so he could break it.”

Taeil nodded. “So you don’t know who turned me?”

Yuta bit his lips. “No, but my guess is, it’s the same person that’s been causing us trouble and turning others without permission. But honestly, if Taeyon’s coven allows it, I’m sure you can stay with us, don’t worry.” Wait, did he want that? Thinking before speaking had never been his strong suit…

“Yes, of course! You’ve been doing so much for us, it’s the least we can do!” Taeyong immediately chimed in and the other four nodded as well. Yuta felt another wave of jealousy at Sicheng beaming especially bright. But he had brought this on himself. 

“Well, I should report myself un-missing, right? I can only imagine how worried my parents are, my family. And Renjun…” Taeil’s voice trailed off. Yuta pursed his lips. To be honest, this was a very good set up for Taeil to just… disappear. Everyone had to, sooner or later, because the people around them would get suspicious. If the police thought he had become victim of the recent supernatural problem in the city – it was even better. They’d overlook his case and there were little worries over being on some list.

But before Yuta could start to voice this, the other had already started to reassure Taeil.

“Yes, of course you can.”

“I’m sure your family will be relieved to know you’re fine.”

“We just have to think of a cover up story for you to tell them and the police.”

“And guys, let’s not forget we have to teach him bewitching, so he gets out of there for sure.” Lucas hollered over the table. 

Yuta decided to stand back for this one. It was Taeil’s decision, after all, and it wasn’t impossible to get someone certified dead, with how many people died in car accidents on Seoul’s streets. When it came to families to worry over, Yuta simply felt like he was left out of the conversation.

He felt someone nudge his thigh, and he turned to face Sicheng, who eyed him carefully, while the rest of the table was making plans on what he was going to tell the police and how it’d all work out. 

Yuta understood the silent question in his eyes, but this wasn’t the place, nor the time to bring up how Yuta had a troublesome relationship with the word and the meaning behind ‘family’. So he just mouthed “later” to Sicheng, who took it and dove right back into making plans for Taeil.

 

Later ended up being indefinitely delayed. Tiffany from Taeyeon’s coven picked up the girl and Taeil, but allowed Jaehyun to come with her, too. He’d be allowed to join them, if they didn’t get the information they wanted from Taeil. It was up to Yuta to herd the rest of the slightly over-excited coven back into the city.

By the time Kun got to Ten’s flat, there had already been 100 different scenarios over who the killer could be cooked up, all listed dutifully in Sicheng’s personal characters that no one could read, because they were a mixture of all the forms Hanzi had gone through during the last centuries – save for the most recent simplification, that Kun loved to vent over.

Yuta had supplied his ideas, not only because he was more set on finding this person than ever, but also because it was beautiful to watch Sicheng get this invested in piecing together the thoughts so they’d make sense. 

Taeil was set to report himself to the police tomorrow and Yuta could only hope he got the bewitchment down, that they had practiced before Tiffany had showed up. It wasn’t really hard, on the contrary, bewitching someone came naturally, the harder part was getting control over the vampire- state. But still. 

For tonight, Taeil took up the sofa, where he was fast asleep by the time Yuta sneaked into the kitchen for some water to escape the first nightmare of the night. 

 

“And breathe out, slowly, leaving all your worries and fears.” Sicheng’s deep voice was like a blanket, wrapping around Yuta. It was hard to not fall asleep, when he did that and Yuta’s body wasn’t forced into painful positions that kept him awake. There was only so much time you could go on just a few hours of sleep until you started snapping and Yuta knew he was on the edge.

Thank god for the makeup industry and good concealers to hide the purple circles under his eyes. He had considered asking Ten for advice, or Kun. But they both seemed so busy with the mess going down in the city and Yuta didn’t want to burden them with his problems. Not to mention, he really should be over this. It was pathetic.

But telling that to himself every evening hadn’t helped so far, and he was still waking up ready to cry or punch someone, who wasn’t there, who had died many, many years ago.

The Tai Chi he and Sicheng did every other morning helped him a bit, so that he sometimes could take a nap in the day, and the Kung Fu practice made him more confident he could take anyone out who would want to harm him. But in his dreams, he could never access his new skills. He was just a human, aching for the relief of the morphine and helpless against the men of the gangs. 

“And then we put our arms over our head and reach up far.” Yuta’s arms moved at snail speed. If only the Twilight series were right and vampires didn’t need to sleep… Yuta also didn’t mind some sparkle… “And release. All done.”

Yuta slowly opened his eyes, just in time to see Sicheng release his hair from the bun he usually wore it in, the black curtain falling down behind him, before he pulled it back up and twirled it into a new bun.

“Didn’t you plan to get it cut?” Yuta asked, stretching his legs from where he had them folded under his body.

“I still do, but Taeil was more important.” Sicheng shrugged. There it was again: jealousy. Yuta smiled and swallowed it down, as Sicheng’s eyes focussed on him. “I wanted to ask, because I noticed several times, that you don’t seem comfortable around the word family, right?”

Yuta nodded and waited for more questions, rather than going off and boring Sicheng with his sob-story. 

“How so?”

“I’ve never had a good experience with… anything surrounding them.”

Sicheng was still staring at him intensely and Yuta started getting a little fidgety under the attention.

“With your own, or with that of others?”

The question was interesting, because no one ever considered other people’s families being a problem. But, of course, Sicheng would know. He was much, much wiser than his cheerful front made you think. 

“Both.” Yuta took the silence from Sicheng as encouragement to offer more. “My family… never cared for me, as a person that is. And in another situation, family was given the priority over me, despite me actually… being interested in the person. But he chose them, because he’s related to them by blood and thus owes them, apparently.” Yuta couldn’t stop himself from sounding a bit bitter, but it was the truth. He was bitter. He had been asked to understand, but he didn’t really.

“So, you don’t want to consider the coven your chosen family?” Sicheng asked and Yuta started deflating a little. Kun had asked him before and Yuta had gotten petulant and they had argued and never spoken about it since. But with Sicheng, he didn’t want to act like a toddler. 

“No, I don’t. I don’t connect the word with good feelings, so I don’t want to use it for a group of people I cherish so much.”

Sicheng hummed “That’s a valid reason. And I think I understand. But if other people call you your family, you know they mean it as the highest possible praise, right?”

Yuta blinked at Sicheng. “I never really thought about that.” he mumbled, because he hadn’t. He just let Kun and Ten say it, not really putting much thought into it. He was indifferent to it. The word friend meant much more. But maybe, he should try and put himself in other people’s shoes? Maybe that had been, why Kun had been so set on changing his mind?

“Well, for me, the word also doesn’t hold that much value, if I’m being honest. So I just wanted to make sure you knew, because to most, family means the unconditional love you can hardly find anywhere else.” Sicheng was smiling at him and had Yuta still had a heartbeat, it’d be thundering right now.

“How come you’re so perfect?” the words were out before he could consider how they sounded. 

“I’m really not, though. But I hope you won’t realise for a bit longer.” Sicheng’s smile dropped and got off the ground, leaving Yuta there. What did that mean? 

 

“Yo, Yuta, can I borrow your blender? I read this dope-ass recipe on how to make drinkable toast, it’s sick man!”

Yuta looked up from the way too complicated instructions his new phone had come with at Lucas, closely followed by Jungwoo, carrying several bags of groceries.

“Drinkable toast?”

“Yes, we found the recipe on tumblr.” Jungwoo chirped. 

“That sounds so gross, weren’t the hamburgers last time enough?”

“You made drinkable hamburgers?” Jungwoo blinked in surprise.

“Those were great, too.” Lucas nodded enthusiastically, and really, they hadn’t been. But Yuta had a very real, very troublesome technical problem on his hands, so why not make the youngsters of the coven do something for him…

“Alright, you can try it, but in return, I need someone to explain this shit to me. Why do companies always change how these things work?” Yuta held up the phone, a little rice it was called, very cute.

“Of course, that’s no problem.” Jungwoo was over by the sofa, while Lucas hooted and marched forward into the kitchen.

Within a few minutes, Jungwoo had explained how the new device worked in a way that Yuta understood (that had never happened before, he started suspecting Lucas wasn’t really the guy to ask for these kind of things), and the blender was roaring from the kitchen.

 

Yuta woke from the door falling shut, the sound echoing through the flat. At least it hadn’t been the nightmares this time, but a look on his alarm clock revealed it wasn’t even 2 am now, which was usually before they started. 

Still who was throwing doors at this time? Yuta slipped from his bed, immediately in a state of fight or flight. One couldn’t be too careful these days.

Jungwoo came wobbling into the hallway from his room a moment later, a pyjama with a bunny print on, rubbing his eyes.

“What’s happening? Is there any danger?” he asked, looking at Yuta for guidance, who didn’t feel very capable of giving it right now, but still put on a confident façade.

“I don’t know.” But he saw Sicheng’s door wide open and a glance inside revealed that the room was empty. “Let’s check Ten’s room.” He mumbled and Jungwoo followed right behind him, like a puppy. 

Ten’s bed was messy, but he was nowhere to be found. Yuta frowned.

“Maybe Sicheng’s still watching TV…” he contemplated, but there was no light from the living room, as it would be, were the TV still running and, predictably, the room was just as vacant as the other two.

“Do you think they were… kidnapped?” Jungwoo whispered, voice shaking a little.

“No, I’m actually pretty extra sure they weren’t. I think they left for somewhere on a minute’s notice, or they would have made noise. And they were definitely in a hurry from the looks of it.” Hopefully. “But we should still call Kun and the lovebirds.” Also, because Kun would definitely know what to do.

“I can call Taeyong.” Jungwoo offered. Yuta nodded, knowing that the two had already become quite close.

“Then I’ll inform Kun.”

 

Kun croaked a greeting, but then immediately changed to the voice of someone who’d been awake for two hours, done morning workouts and had gotten 10 hours of sleep the night before, after Yuta had explained the situation. It was truly amazing. “Have you tried calling them?”

“Sicheng doesn’t have a phone.” Yuta argued, because no, they hadn’t and that should have been the first course of action.

“I’ll try Ten and if I can’t reach him, we’re coming over. Get Taeyong and Jaehyun, too.”

“Will do.” Yuta sighed and hung up. 

Jungwoo was already done with his call and wrapped in his mint fluffy blanket. Yuta slumped down next to him, endless tiredness weighing him down, the adrenaline that should keep him up and alert in a situation like this already wearing off, leaving him drained. 

“Do you think we have to move?” Jungwoo softly asked, eyes wide. He was such a sweetheart, so genuinely innocent in many ways, and Yuta hoped he could keep that trait forever.

“As long as I don’t know what happened, I’m going to say no. It might seem pretty bad right now, but the situation in other, smaller cities is much more difficult. It hard to blend in, to not become suspicious. Around 1970, Busan was pretty much wiped of all supernatural life, for example. Until this day, it remains a mystery, how the Hunter Union got the information about so many identities, but they most likely had an informant. To this day, many covens and packs say, the city is bad luck and would never return.”

Jungwoo gaped at him. “How horrible! That’s… awful. I don’t understand how you can do such a terrible thing to others, who are like you.” He mumbled.

“It’s human, and vampires, ultimately, are human, too. Not all people are like that, but there are always ones full of hate and anger.” Yuta traced the pattern on the sofa. 

“Did you know someone from Busan?” Jungwoo asked carefully and Yuta snorted, but the bell rung and saved him from that story.

 

First, Taeyong and Jaehyun arrived, the former covered in love bites that would have made Yuta make a lewd comment, but his brain didn’t supply any information, other than worry – scary – sleepy. Kun and a completely ruffled, yet still effortlessly handsome Lucas came next and Yuta watched in fascination, as Jungwoo and him softly greeted each other and sat down a bit too close to each other for good friends.

After another 134 tries, Kun finally got Ten on the phone, who informed them, that the girl from the cave, they had carried through the woods, had been killed and Taeil almost became a victim as well, but they had gotten there fast enough and whoever the mastermind behind the killings was, got scared away. And they were coming with Taeil now.

Yuta would have cared more, were he not so endlessly tired, that he could barely keep his eyes open. 

Lucas actually fell asleep, head in Jungwoo’s lap, looking a bit dumb, because his mouth was gaping open, but peaceful otherwise. Yuta considered letting himself doze off as well, but he’d rather not have a nightmare in front of the whole coven. They had bigger problems right now, he didn’t want to annoy them with something this old and dusty.

 

Taeil’s face was stormy, when the trio arrived, a few bags in tow. Ten retold them, that a woman had broken into his flat and said something about wild power-fantasies. The usual stuff. Yuta couldn’t help the nasty feeling, when Sicheng easily offered Taeil to sleep with him tonight, so he’d feel safe. He wanted to scream, really, because he wanted to be in Taeil’s place so badly. But which reasonable adult wanted to not sleep alone for no reason? 

“Alright, let’s hope we’ll have quiet for the night.” Kun sighed, rubbing his neck. Lucas was still completely out on the sofa. 

“You can stay here for the night, if you want.” Ten offered, yawning.

Kun nodded and slipped on the ground, curling up on the carpet. He was the only person who found that a reasonable and wonderful place to sleep, Yuta had been severely confused the first time he had witnessed it.

“I’ll take Lucas with me, so you have the sofa all to yourselves.” Jungwoo smiled, easily manoeuvring 1,84 of buff guy into his arms.

Yuta wished the guests good night and was out the moment his head hit his pillows. 

It lasted for about two hours, and when he jerked up, his blanket fell to the ground with a soft tuff and he was gasping for air. All he wanted to do was sleep, but apparently, that wasn’t happening for him. Yuta was beyond frustrated with himself at this point and wondered if he should just crack open his skull or something, for a few hours of dreamless rest. But healing always hurt, and he wasn’t that into pain.

The door-handle was pushed down quietly and Yuta’s head snapped to the door, where Taeyong’s head popped up. The younger left himself in, closing the door behind himself, and padded over to his bed wordlessly, sitting down next to him.

“It’s stressful, right?” he whispered and took Yuta’s hand, rubbing it softly.

Yuta just hummed in agreement. 

“I had bad dreams for two days, because I was a little relieved when we found Seohyun dead. Because I thought I was such a terrible person for doing that.” he whispered and Yuta felt his fears slowly dispel. 

“You’re not.”

“I know now. But you sometimes need someone by your side.”

“I don’t want to…”

“Burden me? Please, you stood up for months without fail. I’m more than happy to repay the favour. Think you can sleep? Your eyebags are so dark. I feel so bad for not noticing earlier.”

“Don’t tell the others.”

Taeyong eyed him with a serious expression, before nodding.

Yuta woke when the sun rose, as he naturally did. He was still tired, but he felt relatively well rested and re-energised. He climbed over Taeyong to make a smoothie for breakfast, maybe multiple, if the others wanted some, too. Kun was still sleeping on the carpet, spread out like a starfish, and Jaehyun was cuddling a pillow in lieu of his boyfriend. 

 

Yuta didn’t know what Taeyong told Jaehyun, but he slept at Ten’s place for another two nights, and the more well-rested he got, the more annoyed he got. Because of Taeil. It was dumb to hate someone, who was just a nice person as him, caught in the crossfire of whatever was going down in Seoul. But Yuta couldn’t help it.

It was just that Sicheng seemed to fly in circles around him. He played bodyguard at his work – which was necessary, sure but still, someone else could have done it. Taeil joint the Kung Fu lessons, which had to be split into two, because the living room only held so many people – especially if one had as much destructive power as Lucas. And whatever question Taeil might have, Sicheng was there to answer them. It was nice, downright wonderful.

 

“Okay, listen. Sicheng is really old, but also, really clueless, if you couldn’t tell. If you want him, you need to court him. Really old fashioned. You’re old enough to know courting rules, don’t you?”

“Court him? Like… seriously? No one does that anymore, everyone switched to… Okay, right. I should probably court him. Thank you so much, Tennie! I love you!” Yuta bounced out of the room, feeling newly motivated. Kun had said the same thing, after all. And while Yuta didn’t really have any recollection of how courting worked, he always had Wikipedia to fall onto. Not to mention, he already had great first courting gifts.

Taeil was in the kitchen, humming under his breath, when Yuta entered, already in his scrubs to go to work. Sicheng was on the kitchen table, reading through the newspaper in deep concentration – and no, Ten didn’t have a subscription to any newspapers or something sophisticated as that, but Kun did, and lucky for Sicheng, it was a Chinese one. From Taiwan, to be precise, to avoid the censorship a bit. And because of Kun’s hate for simplified Chinese. 

“Good morning. Do you want breakfast-milk?” Taeil smiled and Yuta didn’t return it. He hadn’t offered Taeil anything for the last days, because Yuta was that petty bitch. Taeil seemed completely unaffected by his very clear animosity and remained friendly. Hell, Yuta had even left the teachings over how the vampire state worked to Taeyong, only to hear that Taeil was extremely good at it and could already go back to work at the hospital after two days. 

He was pretty much perfect, like Sicheng. Not like Yuta and his fucked up bad luck.

“No, thanks.” Yuta slammed open the fridge, took the leftovers from the evening mix he had made – that admittedly tasted slightly weird, but he didn’t like throwing away food - and stomped back into his room. At least Taeil had moved from Sicheng’s room into the spare they had. Never mind that it had been Lucas and Sicheng who got him the bed from IKEA.

Yuta searched through the still unopened boxes and emptied them in a coordinated mess onto the floor, until he found the cute things he had gotten for Sicheng. Taeil could eat dust, if he thought he could get Yuta’s man. Who wasn’t his. Moving on.

 

“Oh these are so cute!” Sicheng beamed. “And soft! Fabric has come so far recent years! I love them, thank you so much Yuta!”

Sicheng bounced to his bed and draped the pyjamas over it to inspect further and Yuta felt his insides clench in affection. But he also felt like Sicheng had not gotten why exactly he had been given these at all. He should have looked it up…

“Oh, Taeil told me where he usually goes to get his hair cut, so I’ll get that done tomorrow.” Sicheng announced and Yuta felt like someone had brought the music and rainbows in his mind to a screeching halt.

“Great. I’m sure… you’ll look even more handsome.” 

“Thank you. You’re the expert on hair, so I should have gone with you. Maybe we can in the future?”

“Sure, that’d be fun.”

 

So that didn’t work. At all. 

 

Not unexpectedly at all, Sicheng did look even more breath taking with his hair chopped off. “You’re drooling.” Jaehyun nudged Yuta’s side and he slapped the younger.

 

So Yuta tried again, and again, and got more beaming Sicheng and more terribly nice Taeil. Plus some more back-scrubbing. Oh, and nightmares. Though not as regular. Overall, the week was probably one of the most frustrating of his life. Not worst, there were far worse, this was nothing. But it was simply draining and there was only so much whining Ten was willing to listen to.

 

Saturday evening found Yuta all alone in the flat. 

One of the packs left in the city had asked Kun for help, because they didn’t want Hunters in their club at times like this. It was the same one that Ten had hooked up with his Hunter the first time, oh, and the same one Yuta had gotten caught at. EXO, a place full of good memories.

Especially the younger vampires had been over the moon to leave and hit the streets after being confined to the flat for so long, when going out had been a constant in life before. So no one would willingly stay behind. Yuta got it.

Save for their terribly nice new addition. Taeil had a shift to work, so of course Sicheng was there, keeping guard. 

Yuta didn’t like being alone. He was a very social person, always had been, after all. And especially with bad memories lurking behind every corner, and the huge flat vacant, he jumped at every crack he heard.

 

He turned on the TV and started watching an old TVXQ concert from Japan, which then made him homesick, so he decided to give it a try and dialled Mina’s number on his phone.

“Yuta!” her cheerful voice came through the line after only a moment. “It’s so nice to hear from you!”

“Hey Mina. Hi Momo.” Yuta smiled to himself and leaned back on the sofa to get comfortable. 

“How are you holding up? How is the situation with the Hunters? Are you safe?” Mina immediately fussed. 

“Yes, don’t worry. I’m staying hidden and inside, no stakes near my heart.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Hey Yuta!” Momo’s voice came from the distance now.

“How’s Nagoya?”

“Oh, it’s beautiful. I sent you a postcard a few weeks ago, didn’t that reach you?”

“Wait, no, damn, we moved!” Yuta groaned.

“You did? You mentioned you were getting so many in the coven, is that why?”

“Yes, it was getting for too crowded. I’ll send you my new address.”

“Do that, I’ll write a new postcard then.” 

“Thank you.” Yuta pulled a blanket over him. He should have called Mina earlier, much earlier, he scolded himself for not thinking of this. Only using his native language made him feel so comfortable and happy, worries calming down.

“So, how are things with your crush?” Momo hollered from where she was a bit away from the phone.

Yuta sighed deeply, but speaking to them, all his boy-troubles didn’t see so terrible anymore.

“Not so well, I’m afraid. I don’t think he understands what I want from him? And then he’s always around our newest coven member. Apparently, he saved him as a child by chance.”

“Aw, Yuta, you sound a little jealous there.” Mina softly teased. 

Yuta huffed “Guess there’s no point denying it.”

“Who’s the new guy?” Momo asked.

“His name’s Moon Taeil. He was out blood supplier and he’s ridiculously nice, but I still hate him.”

“Of course, you do, sweetie.” Mina giggled “It would be not very Yuta of you to not. But do you think there’s reason to be jealous? Who turned the boy?”

“Oh, that, right, we don’t know, he got caught up in the whole mess going down here. There’s reason to think whoever is trying to ruin us is building an army of vampires and he was one of them.”

There was silence for a moment, before Mina spoke again.

“I’m going to be honest… that doesn’t sound very good, Yuta. Are you sure you’re safe? Maybe it’d be wiser to leave…”

“Someone has to hold up the civilisation here, though.”

“Alright. I think I can trust your judgement. Getting back on topic, maybe your dear feels the need to step into the place of the sire of the boy? If he saved him before, that might have formed a connection, but a platonic one, rather than romantic, does that make sense to you?”

Yuta pursed his lips.

“Well…. Maybe?”

“And if he doesn’t understand your intentions, you could make them more clear, or have a clarifying talk with him.”

“Or talk to the other dude, find out if he’s even a rival.” Momo suggested. Yuta thought it over. That might be a good idea, actually. Because the whole coven, save for Sicheng, knew about his infatuation, why not tell Taeil?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading (did anyone even get till here? ^^;) ~


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’ll be a change of POV and time in the middle of the chapter. Cursive/Italic font means, it’s from Sicheng’s POV.  
> Quick warning, that there’s violence and murder in this chapter, in Sicheng’s flashback to be precise. It went downhill pretty fast and then I re-edited it about 127 times… I took out the “not as dark as this suggests” tag, so please keep that in mind.

They got severely side-tracked, and by 1 am, when Taeil and Sicheng came back, Yuta was hanging off the sofa upside down, still talking in rapid fire Japanese. He waved at the surprised upside-down people.

“My coven mates are back, gotta put a plan in action.” Yuta explained.

“I hope your coven leader won’t die from seeing the bill for the four-hour international call.” Mina chuckled “But call again some time, alright? Don’t be a stranger.”

“I wouldn’t. Alright, love you.”

Yuta pressed the red button to end the call and swung back onto the couch properly. All the training started paying off, that had probably looked pretty cool. As far as swinging one’s self over a sofa went.

“Hey. Did you have a good day? Or night? At work?” Yuta asked, switching back to Korean and Taeil looked extremely startled, probably because Yuta had been nothing but an arsehole recently – he had to admit it himself.

“Yes, sure. Pretty quiet.”

“Where is everyone?” Sicheng asked, looking down the hall.

“Oh, they’ve gone clubbing. EXO has Hunter parasites.”

Sicheng’s mouth formed an o and he nodded.

“I’ll get going, I’m beat. Have a good night, both of you.” Taeil smiled and waved, before going down the hall.

“Are you watching the Rising Gods again?” Sicheng asked, settling on the sofa next to Yuta.

“Oh, that. Yes, I watched it before calling Mina.”

“Who’s Mina?” Sicheng’s head turned to Yuta.

“My sire.”

“Oh, she must be a really wonderful woman. How did you meet? Is he doing well?” Sicheng bounced in his place a little.

“She’s fine.” Yuta pressed play and the concert awoke back to life on the tv. But he felt Sicheng stare at the side of his face. He wasn’t bouncing anymore, but serious now.

“I’d be genuinely interested, Yuta. You’re a very interesting person, you know? Not what one would expect, in intriguing ways.”

Yuta sunk into himself a little at those words. He didn’t like sharing his past, it wasn’t something that’d impress people. On the contrary, many times before, he had been called dirty, because he used to be a – for a lack of a nice word – whore and addict. Yuta couldn’t even blame the people, he felt somewhat similar, thinking of the experiences he had already had.

And especially Sicheng, who surely came from a wonderful background and grew up like a sophisticated nobleman, with his genuine excitement for little things… he’d probably be disgusted.

“I’m really not that interesting. You’re the one who is. You’ve lived really long, saw so much… I just come from a bad past and have bad luck.”

Sicheng reached over, which was a rare thing to happen, and gently patted Yuta’s arm.

“Living longer only means experiencing more bad things. If you knew, you’d stop thinking I’m anything to be worth being interested in.”

With those words, he stood from the sofa and disappeared down the hall.

Yuta looked after him, brows furrowed in thought. Sicheng had said before that he wasn’t perfect and didn’t want him to find out. Yuta didn’t know how to find out, in the first place. But he wondered, if it really could be bad enough to ruin the image he had of Sicheng.

Not to mention, that while your past formed you, it didn’t mean you couldn’t grow past the person you used to be.

The good feeling from talking to Mina was washed away with his overthinking of what Sicheng had said, and if it could possibly out-weigh his own past.

 

Yuta must have fallen asleep during Bolero. He woke up, because Ten stumbled through the door. He checked the time, 2:30 am, and looked at his coven mate with raised eyebrows. The scent of body wash was much too thick on him for someone who had been clubbing.

“And where were we?” he asked as obnoxiously as possible, like everything was normal. If he just pretended hard enough…

“Getting properly dicked, while you’re still in a committed relationship with both your hands.” Ten blew him a kiss and Yuta flipped him off in response. He hadn’t really felt very turned on recently, so there wasn’t even any love life with his hands to talk about.

He considered going to bed, but the sofa was warm and he hadn’t had any bad dreams so far, so he just went back into peaceful slumber, until the next person returned. Jungwoo looked a lot worse for wear than Ten had, stumbling in a wiggly line into the living room. Not to mention he didn’t smell of body wash, but of lube and wolf.

Yuta sighed and got off the sofa, hooking an arm around Jungwoo, who smiled at him, like he was the saviour in the flesh. Drunk people could be so cute.

Yuta considered putting Jungwoo in the shower but decided he didn’t need to see any naked men tonight and just stripped the skinny jeans off him – props that he had gotten back into them in the first place. Not that Yuta had ever done the walk of shame in the middle of the night in only his underwear. That had definitely never happened.

Once Jungwoo was in his bed with a bucket next to it – just in case – Yuta finally returned to his room.

 

He shouldn’t have done that, but at least it was already pretty late, when he woke from his nightmares. Yuta sighed and rubbed his temples, breathing evenly. Hopefully no one had heard the little yelp. It was a new low.

No such luck, the sound of the door-handle made Yuta look up, expecting Ten. Maybe Taeil, definitely not Jungwoo, he was probably out of commission for longer.

But to his utter surprise, it was Sicheng.

“Are you okay?” he whispered. His hair stood up on his left side of his head. It looked cute.

“Yeah.” Yuta nodded and pulled his blanket back up. God, he sure as hell didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of Sicheng…

“Mind if I come in?”

Yuta waved for him to come inside and scooted out of the way, so Sicheng could sit on the bed. Sicheng didn’t just sit on the bed, but he laid down next to him.

There was awkward silence and Yuta wondered if it was time to offer drinks or something, but Sicheng spoke, before he could make a joke about coffee.

“I thought about last night.”

“Uh?”

“I asked you to tell me stuff you aren’t comfortable with, yet I offer nothing of my own insecurities. That was pretty unfair.”

“It’s no problem, really.” Like Yuta would be angry with Sicheng – hilarious.

“But I really think it is, more like… I think I should tell you a bit… about myself. Because I heard you were joking that I don’t get what you try to convey, with the presents, with the attention you give me. I do. But I don’t think I’m worth your time, really. So, I want to tell you why.”

“If I thought you were still worth my time.” Which Yuta was pretty sure he would. “Are you even interested in being worth my time?” He stared at the ceiling, not daring to look over. But it’d be better to get this out of the way now.

“Yuta, I am 100% sure you won’t think that. I don’t deserve your time, not matter how much I wished it was different.” Sicheng said and his eyes were sad, a bone deep depression, that Yuta had never seen in anyone before, but he had never met anyone who could have carried 2,000 years’ worth of sadness.

 

_A boy born to a family was a reason for joy. Any child was, if they and the mother lived, of course. But a boy was worth more to the family._

_A beautiful child was even more of a reason for joy. Especially under the wealthy people of the city, that served at the palace and generally didn’t worry if they’d have enough rice to allow the family to see another sunrise. Something that’d set them apart from their neighbours, who were waiting for the chance to take their place, their influence and their sympathy from the emperor, was very desirable._

_“Ah, did you see the Dong’s boy? He grew taller again, his beauty rivals that of a flower.”_

_The people would say, when Sicheng was a baby._

_“But an airhead, I heard. Pretty with no brain. I feel for his father, he won’t follow him to the court. A boy that’s just pretty to look at isn’t useful.”_

_The people would start to say, when Sicheng started growing into a child._

_“Well, if he keeps messing up his writing, he can still serve at the tea house on the edge of town, he’ll be making a lot there, since he’s probably prettier than all the girls there. And I heard he has a bit of a screw loose, the men there would look past that. But no woman could deal with that.”_

_The people would finally say, when Sicheng became a teenager._

_Sicheng had tried to tell his mom, how the words just wouldn’t stay still on the paper. How the many strokes in their complex order were confusing him and often all looked the same. But she had slapped him on his fingers harder and told him to stop coming up with excuses, when he just didn’t want to study._

_He used to cry, because it hurt and he didn’t want his mom to be angry, just to understand. But his father told him, that a boy wasn’t to cry, that it wasn’t proper and if he didn’t stop, the soldiers would come and take him with them._

_Sicheng was very worried about getting taken by the military, so he stopped crying._

_He enjoyed watching the flowers, he loved to stitch them into silk tissues. The other boys at the scholar he went to, to study, said he was weird. Not normal. And they’d shun him, never let him play with them. Sicheng wanted friends, but in the end, he had to make do with the flowers that bloomed where the palace garden bordered against the wall. Those were the most beautiful ones in the whole city. Worthy of royals._

_One day, a stranger crouched down next to him._

_“You can stitch?”_

_It was a guy, Sicheng noticed. Probably his age, maybe a little older, 16 or 17, from the residue childishness to his face, that was starting to grow into that of a man’s._

_“Yeah.”_

_“That’s really pretty. You’re more skilled than the tailors at the palace, for sure.”_

_Sicheng felt himself flush, eyes widen. “You live in the palace?”_

_“Sure do, as a prince, that’s where you usually live.”_

_Sicheng scrambled to drop into a proper bow, but the other stopped him, laughing._

_“Boys as pretty and as talented as you don’t have to bow for me. I’m not that important, anyway.”_

_“But… but you’re a prince!” Sicheng insisted._

_“Well, by title. See, they didn’t even bother sending guards with me. Tell me, which one is your favourite flower?”_

_His name was Liu Cheng, and he was a real, actual prince. And he kept returning to meet with Sicheng. And then, he started bringing things: silk, pearls, flowers, even a jade bracelet, that shone dark around Sicheng’s arm and he couldn’t stop staring at._

_Then, he started stealing kisses, started holding his hand, started bringing poems he wrote and read to Sicheng, because the words still tumbled all over the page._

_Sicheng was a careless teenager. He didn’t think about what would happen, if someone found out, or how the future would work out. He just thought, it’d continue to be like this forever._

_So, when Liu Cheng told him, he was to be married to the Princess of a clan far east in a city called Hangzhou, Sicheng felt like someone had pulled the ground from below his feet._

_“Don’t worry, Sicheng. You’ll stay my most beautiful flower, which I’ll think of fondly forever.” He assured, but Sicheng couldn’t stop the tears._

_“Can’t I come? I don’t have anyone here.”_

_“But how?”_

_“Maybe as a servant to the palace?”_

_“I don’t think I’ll be taking anyone, but my personal servants, who’ve been serving me for years. I’m sorry.”_

_“But if I came, we could still be together, right? I love you!”_

_“Of course, if you could. I love you, too.”_

_“I don’t think you know what you’re asking for, Sicheng. I thought I had taught you better, to be humble and not ask the impossible from me.” His father’s face contorted with anger. Sicheng cowered, making himself smaller, where he had outgrown his parents years ago._

_“You can be lucky if anyone even wants someone as useless as you. I can’t believe I’m wishing for a daughter, but your sisters are much less trouble. If you were one of them, it’d be easy. Any man would love to marry you, would look past the simpleness of your mind. But like this? Nothing but trouble. Now get out of my sight, I’m tired of being reminded where I failed to teach my own flesh and blood and forget about Hangzhou.”_

_Sicheng did as he was told, he left. But he didn’t forget. If he got to Hangzhou, Liu Cheng would take him back, surely. And they’d live happily ever after._

_The other boys his age stopped coming to the scholar, one by one, leaving only younger boys there. And eventually, his father announced he had found an officer at the court, who would take Sicheng as his apprentice._

_Apprenticeship meant, that he had to write. Copy books, all day. The officer was less than pleased with the results Sicheng delivered and struck him frequently for doing a bad job._

_The idea, that he could just go to Hangzhou on his own didn’t leave his mind. And when his mother threw hands full of his stitching into the cooking fire, while screaming at him for being a man and forbidden to practice women’s crafts, he decided to go and find someone, who could take him to Hangzhou._

_The markets always bustled with life. Surely, his teacher was missing him in the palace by now, but Sicheng didn’t plan to return. He had packed whatever he deemed necessary to get by and carried it in a bag over his back._

_“Ay, handsome young man! Are you looking to buy fruit? I have the best.”_

_“Young man! These potteries are the best in the city. I’ll make you a good price!”_

_Sicheng strolled past the women and men offering goods. He hadn’t come here much. His oldest brother had long been entrusted with the family’s expenses and their servants went to the market for them. He also didn’t like the big groups of people, that were always here, talking. People talking usually said hurtful things and Sicheng didn’t want the soldiers to come and take him, because he cried from that._

_He wound up at a tavern, where the owner said surely one of the merchants would be heading east and how they always took young men, that could work hard._

_Sicheng wasn’t sure what working hard implied. But he’d work his best to properly copy texts, or maybe calculate books. He could do that!_

_The first man laughed and said he didn’t need a skinny kid like him, who couldn’t even pick up a bundle of leathers. The second said he already had enough boys. The third said, he was selling too little and couldn’t pay anyone. Sicheng said he didn’t need pay, but he laughed and explained that pay meant that he’d get to eat. He did have to do that, admittedly. It was very disheartening._

_“Say, boy, I heard you wanted to get away from here?” a man that couldn’t be older than 30 but had eyes that held experience that came from age, asked, when Sicheng got rejected for the fourth time._

_“Yes. To Hangzhou.”_

_The man patted his chin. “I don’t think that’s where we’re headed right now. But if you can handle a detour… you won’t get an offer from those men. You’re too inexperienced for what they need. But I… I can use a boy like you. What do you say?”_

_“I’ll get to Hangzhou, then?” Sicheng inquired._

_“Eventually, yes. And our work is never boring.” The man assured. Sicheng didn’t care about that, any work was better than what he had been doing, so he beamed and agreed easily._

_They didn’t head east. Sicheng had been taught how to use sun and stars to find his way around. He knew they headed north. But Sicheng didn’t worry. He was sure they’d eventually change directions. There were another five boys travelling with them at first. One of them wanted to get to Japan, one of them wanted to become a merchant and get rich, one of them wanted to find his true love, one of them had lost all his money gambling and the nice man had given him a loan, but he had to work it off and one of them had been chased from his home, because he had laid with a man._

_Sicheng was surprised that wasn’t allowed, but didn’t really pry, because it seemed like the boy was upset about it. Maybe it was because he was missing his beloved, like he did._

_In every city they stopped, more young men joint them. Soon, the landscape started getting rougher, the towns fewer and the accent foreign, until they reached a tall wooden fence and the nice man announced they were going to stay here for now._

_Sicheng was a bit unhappy, because this wasn’t Hangzhou, but there wasn’t anything he could do. And he would get to go to Hangzhou, eventually, the man had promised, after all._

_There were countless huts inside the walls, buzzling with life. They weren’t allowed to go anywhere without one of the higher-ranking men, though. Sicheng was surprised how young everyone was, having worked at the palace before, where the higher ranking were often pretty old._

_His roommates, some of the boys he had come with, started wondering, what they were actually here for soon. They got training in martial arts, because it was important to be able to defend themselves. After all, there were lots of criminals on the trade routes._

_Sicheng always assured them it’d surely be fine, after all, they had been promised what they wanted, so they’d surely get that. And he didn’t want to be murdered on the route to selling expensive silks or pearls._

_Not to mention how nice everyone was. He got praised, because he was normally the first to pick moves up. He enjoyed it, it was fun to fly through the air._

_Until they started to have to fight against each other. Sicheng was so scared the first time, his opponent made quick work of him and he had to be treated by the doctor in the fortress. He couldn’t hold a few tears at night, when every part of his body hurt. But it was fine, because he’d get to see Liu Cheng again and then everything would be fine._

_The next time he didn’t properly fight back, his trainer started to become unhappy, which was awful, because Sicheng didn’t want anyone to be upset with them. But he just couldn’t bring himself to punch another person._

_The third time he was put up against a guy he didn’t know, one that had been here for longer, who moved so unbelievably quickly, Sicheng didn’t see his hands move, unable to duck away._

_“Sicheng, why are you doing this to me? You were my favourite boy. You are so talented, so beautiful in the way you move. Why don’t you show me, when you’re put up against someone else? It makes me so sad. But if you don’t fight, we have to send you back home to Chang’An. Do you want that?”_

_Sicheng stared at the nice man and shook his head furiously. His parent wouldn’t want him back, after he had run away, would they? And he wanted to make the man proud. He had so much faith in him, after all._

_The next time he was put up to fight, he didn’t hold back. It was terrible, having to kick and punch against the flesh, see the blood from the wounds he caused, until their trainer ended the fight and declared him winner. But he got told how well he had done. So, he had to overcome that. It was good, after all, if he hurt them, because they told him._

_Sicheng wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but spring had turned into summer, the sun burning, then into autumn, when they were under the merciless rain, into winter, when his fingers turned so cold they didn’t even hurt anymore. It was to get tough, because on the roads, there might not be nice places. It made perfect sense._

_By the next spring, there were only Sicheng and another guy left from their originally batch, all the others having chosen to leave, Sicheng guessed, because he had never seen them again._

_There was nothing but training. Until every muscle, every bone and every joint in his body hurt so much he couldn’t move anymore. But it was well worth it, for the praise he got. It took another full turn of the season, until their trainers said they were ready, had mastered the first step of the arts of war._

_Sicheng had not felt this exhilarated in two years. Because now, he’d get to go to Hangzhou. Surely, right?_

_He and the other boy, as well as other boys who had made it through the training, met up with the nice man. He wasn’t always around, he got more boys, whose dreams he’d fulfil._

_“You all did so well. I’m so proud of you. Only you made it to here. So, you proved you deserve to be added to our rows. Be turned, so you gain eternal youth, immortality.”_

_Sicheng felt his jaw drop. Immortality?_

_“I see the doubt. Let me demonstrate.” The nice man smiled and suddenly, his teeth elongated, turning into fangs, his eyes taking a terrible red colour. Sicheng was scared out of his mind, but he couldn’t look away, as he cut into his own arm with his fangs, blood dropping. But then, the wound closed in front of his eyes._

_So, this was why everyone here was so young? Or looked so young?_

_Sicheng obediently drank the cup of funny tasting liquid he was given. He held still, as the man mumbled calming words. He felt him grip his head and then, suddenly, nothing._

_When he woke, his heart had stopped beating, he no longer felt hungry, only thirsty sometimes. But they always got blood to drink, when they wanted. He didn’t sweat anymore, he didn’t get exhausted as easily, able to train for more. Because the nice man had said, before they could go to Hangzhou, he had to perfect his arts._

_By the time the leaves turned orange again and Sicheng knew he was turning 21 years-old, or would have, if he hadn’t stopped aging, the nice man congratulated him for finishing. Told him how special he was, how great._

_However, it wasn’t him, who’d go East with him, but a stranger, that the nice man assured was reliable and great. He had another three guys with him Sicheng also didn’t know, but they probably wanted to go somewhere the same direction._

_He was excited, that he was finally at his goal, would get to see Liu Cheng soon, very soon._

_Their way East was troublesome, though, very much so. Many times, their leader told them they had to unfortunately fight against people who wouldn’t let them pass. And they had to pass, to get to Hangzhou._

_Sicheng was sometimes surprised, when people easily stopped fighting back, lying limp. Dead._

_He worriedly asked their leader, but he always assured him it was fine, he had done great and should continue doing just like that._

_It took months, and months, and months. Sicheng didn’t freeze so badly in the winder anymore and didn’t sweat in the summer anymore. But he started to realise, that what the leader said… wasn’t usually the truth. The people they had to fight never wanted to attack. They didn’t fight back many times, because they couldn’t._

_He voiced the concern once, but got struck for being so ridiculous. So he kept quiet and tried to be less brutal, but he got scolded again. And when he didn’t go back to killing as many, their leader refused to give him blood, when he wanted it and Sicheng didn’t have a choice, but to drink from the people in the villages they passed._

_They always took whatever there was in the houses and huts that was of value. And they sold it in the bigger towns they passed, where there were too many people for them to take on. Their leader always made him wash up and change before they arrived, because of the blood that permanently stained his clothing and skin._

_Sicheng had lost track of where they were. He was sure they’d never really get to Hangzhou, wondering, if he had gotten tricked. Tricked by the man who led them, who surely also tricked the nice man._

_But none of the others shared that opinion. It was the village people’s fault, for not being prepared. And wasn’t it, really? Sicheng wasn’t so sure anymore. After all, they just died so easily… they could just… not?_

_And then, when he didn’t expect it anymore, they arrived at Hangzhou. Sicheng was allowed to visit the palace, if he got back before dawn._

_Getting past the guards was easy. One look into their eyes and they did what he wanted and if they didn’t want to look at him, he thrust his hand through their chests, and left them on the ground, dying just as easily as any other human._

_He ripped open the doors inside, making people scream. But whoever was inside, it wasn’t Liu Cheng, until he had reached far inside. The man jerked up from pages and pages of writings. Sicheng hadn’t read in so long, he wasn’t even sure he remembered every Hanzi he had learnt._

_“Cheng Cheng.” Sicheng gasped, stumbling into the room. He had matured… aged a bit. But it had been five years since they had last seen each other. But the eyes were the same, face familiar, the face Sicheng had never stopped loving. “I finally came.”_

_Sicheng started getting closer, but the man scrambled off the ground and backed away from him. He didn’t realise his clothing was drenched in red, having gotten so used to the sensation of bloody fabric sticking to him._

_“Who – who are you?” he asked, voice shaky. “Guards! Guards in here!”_

_Sicheng stopped dead in his tracks. Who was he?_

_“It’s me.”_

_“I don’t know you.”_

_Sicheng stared at the man, he had gone through all of this for, in disbelief._

_“Me… Sicheng.”_

_The man stared for another moment, then he nodded slowly. “Ah… you…”_

_He glanced past Sicheng, probably expecting the guards, who were in a puddle of their own blood on the hallway and wouldn’t come to save him._

_“I… I came, so we could be together again. We can now be together forever, you can become like me, and we can life happily, forever. Right? You said if I came to Hangzhou…” Sicheng swallowed, because he saw only one thing in the other man’s eyes: fear. “Because you said you loved me.” He whispered, looking down on his hands, smeared in blood._

_“Maybe I said that. I was young and dumb. I… there was no future for us. And I fell in love with my wife. She’s lovely, really. Sicheng, I can’t believe you actually came! Why didn’t you have your parents find you a wife, live a happy life in Chang’An?”_

_“Because you said if I came, we could be together. I didn’t expect you to go against your word. To lie.” Sicheng stepped closer again._

_“It wasn’t a lie. Just… I grew up. And so should you, Sicheng. Two men together… that’s not natural. It’s not normal.”_

_Sicheng finally was close to Liu Cheng, able to grab his wrists, but he wasn’t feeling excited to see him anymore. He was angry._

_“You’re wrong. It’s normal! My feelings were true.”_

_“Well, I don’t think you knew what love even was yet. Neither did I. Now, I know. So just let it go. Go home, Sicheng.”_

_“But I don’t have a home anymore. Because I followed my loved one.”_

_“I told you, that’s not love. It cannot be.”_

_Sicheng couldn’t stop the scream of agony that ripped from his throat. How could he say that? Of course, it was love. Had been in love._

_“Guards!” Liu Cheng called again, but there was no sound from outside. “Let go of me.” He started struggling against Sicheng’s grip, but he was no match to his strength. “I said let go. You’re crazy. Insane! You’re not normal. I should have listened, when they said there was no use for a pretty guy like you, that you weren’t quite right upstairs.”_

_Sicheng’s breath stocked. He stared at the man he had loved in disbelief, but all the fondness he had felt… was gone. Then, he clenched his fists and a crack ripped through the room. Liu Cheng screamed, but Sicheng didn’t stop. He didn’t stop, until the screaming ceased, and he watched the lifeless body sink to the ground, blood seeping into the matting on the floor._

_It was what he deserved. Sicheng wiped his hands on his pants and turned back to the door, marched out of the palace the same way he had come._

_After that, he stopped caring, if the people screamed, if they begged for their lives. He was the first one to march into a new village and the one who had the highest body count. The leader was impressed by him, so he said. But Sicheng knew, he was scared, too. He also didn’t care. He didn’t have a reason to go against orders. He only lived for them now._

_They returned after over a year, heavy with money and valuables._

_The nice man told Sicheng how well he had done, but Sicheng didn’t really care anymore. He was assigned to train some of the new boys they brought, but too many of them died in his lessons, so they instead put Sicheng back onto a team that was set out to gather more wealth. Sicheng never talked back. He did as asked. He didn’t trust anyone, because when someone you loved and who told you loved you would turn against you… everyone could._

_He rose in the ranks, gained respect, even among those older then him, for his skills and determination. Sometimes, he accepted the offer for physical closeness one of the other men his rank gave. He hoped to find what he had lost with Liu Cheng, but it always felt good, but never like it had with him. It was probably because he had killed him, that he wasn’t allowed to feel that anymore, Sicheng concluded. So, he could just go on and continue his killing streak. It wouldn’t change anything, would it?_

_No one stopped them. Sometimes, soldiers came and tried to knock their fortress down, but they always failed. Until they came with stakes, torches, wooden arrows and deadly precision._

_Sicheng watched the camp go down. He had seen how a vampire died before. Treason was punished with death, after all, and Sicheng was the most loyal of them all, so he had ripped off more heads than he remembered. But seeing so many of them fall to dust, even made him sick to the stomach._

_But wasn’t this exactly, what they did, whenever they came to a village?_

_The soldiers went through the huts, through every last one, stabbing stakes through the hearts of whoever they found and took the boys that were still human. For emperor Zhezong of Song._

_Only Sicheng and another high-ranking man survived, because they had been hidden well enough behind the training grounds. As Sicheng walked over the ground that was covered in ash, he started realising, what he had done, over the last 1,000 years._

_When the other suggested they’d re-build what had been ruined, Sicheng shook his head and ran._

_He ran South, because he couldn’t bring himself to go East, didn’t want to go further North and didn’t know was laid in the West. He ran, until he reached home, that no longer was his home, wasn’t even called the same anymore. But he accepted that as his punishment, for being a bad son, for being a terrible human being… for not even being human anymore._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zhejiang is the province in which Wenzhou is, where Sicheng is from, but the city didn't exist yet back then. Its capital is Hangzhou, which can be dated back to 221 BC. It could have been one of the biggest medieval cities, having possibly over 1 mio inhabitants (that’s so crazy). There’s also the saying上有天堂，下有苏杭。, meaning up, there’s paradise, below, there’s Suzhou and Hangzhou, because it’s known for being such a beautiful place.
> 
> Liu Cheng was one of the sons of Emperor Jing of Han (father of Wu of Han, during his reign Dong Zhongshu started working at the palace, but he didn’t have much of a career until Wu), born to his 7th “wife” in 153 BC he fitted the best with Sicheng and he was super low in line to the throne – perfect. 
> 
> Zhezong of Song reigned until 1100. I simply chose him for the time he lived at, bow and arrow were common in China for much longer. The Song dynasty wasn’t even known for great military achievements, but I didn’t want to dip into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, because it’s super complicated. So, again, inspired by reality, but not 100% historically accurate.
> 
> And, finally, what I described is how dyslexia can impact your ability to read and write, which is what he has in this canon. It’s also why Sicheng in the presence writes in his own style and pays so much attention to anything he reads (if you noticed that).


	9. Chapter 9

Yuta had wrapped himself tighter into the blanket, as Sicheng’s story unfolded, feeling the need to keep himself warm from the cold that the sadness of his past carried. 

“I found my humanity, luckily, after many, many years. I managed to find back to who I used to be, before they took me. But that doesn’t change that I’m a murderer. I have the blood of so many on my hands and no matter how much good I try to do, how many lives I try to protect, the body-count will never be outweighed. 

“And worst of all, I killed who I loved, of my own accords. I didn’t have anyone telling me I should do that. It’s why I don’t deserve anyone’s love anymore.”

Sicheng was still facing the ceiling, when Yuta turned his head, a strand falling into his eyes he brushed away in annoyance. 

“Their approval… it was like you needed it to survive, right? It gave you a high, of sorts.” He softly asked.

“Hm… yes, I think so, that’s a good description.”

Yuta nodded to himself. Like an addiction, a dependence the men who had found a young, impressable, probably incredibly sweet Sicheng, that he saw what had survived of in the easily excited side of him, that was so eager to learn everything about the modern world. But he needed to ask a question, that was extremely important to him.

“You never killed, or hurt anyone, because it was fun?”

Sicheng turned his head and furrowed his brows “No. I never found any pleasure in that. Nor do I enjoy harming people. I just did it, but I didn’t question it, which was wrong.”

Yuta felt like Sicheng had been made a puppet. That he did have responsibility for what he did – but not in the way he seemed to believe. But Yuta didn’t know how to explain that. And honestly, it had been enough information for one morning.

“My mind wasn’t changed. I might have think about this a little, but I do think you’re very deserving of my love. And I wished you would forgive yourself and return it. Maybe, we could continue this conversation, another time?”

“I just told you, I killed my boyfriend… and you still think I deserve a second chance.”

“Yes. Because when you did, you weren’t the person you’re now.”

Sicheng sat up slowly, obviously still deep in thought. “You’re… surprising me, just when I think I have figured you out.”

 

Sicheng didn’t avoid him, which Yuta was thankful for. They still trained in both Tai Chi and Kung Fu and Yuta made sure to make little presents for him wherever possible, though Sicheng looked even more confused over receiving them now. Yuta did not miss Ten’s laughing fits and Ten made sure he didn’t miss them. 

At first, it was hard to believe this man really would go completely cold and go on a millennium-long killing spree. But Yuta told himself, that he had to come to terms with that and accept it, rather than brush over it and ignore it, preferably forget it. It was part of Sicheng’s past and it had greatly formed him, so if he truly wanted to love him, he had to be able to understand his past, not ignore it.

And until he had gotten his mind wrapped around that, he’d just let their relationship stay exactly how it was, neither going back, nor forth. 

The most relieving part was, that the jealousy he had felt, like an ugly burn in his chest, had disappeared. 

Sometimes, Yuta even slept a full night, which was fun.

Though this night, he wasn’t woken by nightmares and horrors of either his, or Sicheng’s past, but Ten, who shook his arm. “Yuta! Yuta, get up!”

Yuta tried to pull away and roll over, but his blanket was ripped away and cold hit his skin, making him whine.

“We have a bit of an emergency, come on, we’re holding an impromptu meeting.”

“What? Right now?” Yuta croaked.

“Yes, right now, the moment the other four arrive.”

“Then give me another five minutes.” More shaking.

“You don’t think it’ll take Kun five minutes to get here, do you? Plus, they got a head start. Now get your arse out of the bed, this is a life-or-death situation.”

“Is it about your Hunter-boyfriend?”

“What?” Ten’s voice was too shrill and now Yuta was interested, sitting up to rub sleep from his eyes. “No! It’s not! It’s about that bunny-officer I showed you when he went missing a bit ago.”

“Right. The friend of your boyfriend. Got it.”

Yuta yawned and walked past Ten, to get something to dress up a little.

 

Kun dragged Lucas by his ear behind him, Lucas looked half-asleep and it was honestly pretty impressive, because that grip had to hurt. 

Jaehyun was still in his scrubs, after a late shift in the hospital. And Taeyong seemed to have waited for his boyfriend to return home from work, as he looked pretty put together. It was cute.

“So, you remember the Hunter I told you about? The one that went missing?” Ten asked. He looked a little crazed and Yuta felt for him. There was nodding on the table.

“He was turned and then dumped in front of Hunters’ HQ, among a pile of turned civilians. They liquidised those, but they kept him, to experiment on him, according to the Hunter who told me. He asked, if we could help them get him out, because he had nowhere to hide a vampire. And is probably also pretty intimidated, since he only knows the bullshit they feed them at the Department.”

Yuta felt immediately awful for the guy. Sure, Hunters were a terrible pain in the arse and he’d love for them to just drop off the face of earth. But he was still a human and likely scared, once he realised what had happened, after never learning that vampires were really just trying to co-habitat peacefully. 

Not to mention the mentality that he was an object, to try things out on, was against everything Yuta believed in.

“But this might be a trap. Walk into the Hunters’ HQs? That sounds like the last thing you’d want to do.” Kun shook his head, face serious.

“But we can’t leave someone to get tortured in the name of questionable science.” Yuta immediately disagreed. 

“If that’s even the truth.” Kun frowned. 

“No medical professional can do something to harm someone, we take an oath.” Jaehyun countered.

“But that’d suggest the hunters see us as humans, which they don’t. So those rules won’t apply and they won’t feel bad.” Lucas grumbled. 

“Those questions have to be put away for later. I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury of time. I just need a quick vote and someone to come with me.”

“Me.” Yuta quickly raised his hand “I’m already in their files, it’s the lowest risk.”

Ten slowly nodded and Yuta caught Sicheng’s eyes on him, worried.

“Who’s in favour?” Ten asked. Yuta raised his hand, so did Ten, Taeyong, Lucas, Taeil and Jungwoo. 

Kun, as their leader, counted double, but it was still six against four. So Yuta changed into street clothing in a hurry and they masked their faces, before disappearing into Seoul night, towards the last place any supernatural wanted to be at.

 

The subway was vacant, dark and looked like a place right out of a horror film. At least, to Yuta’s knowledge, Zombies weren’t real, or he’d be seriously freaking out right now.

Nervousness buzzed under his skin. The Hunter that had informed Ten was called Mark and was in a team with Ten’s boyfriend-not-boyfriend Johnny and the missing person, bunny Hunter, Dongyoung. Additionally, Mark had been supported by one of Ten’s dancing students, Donghyuck, who had assured them it was really real and super urgent. 

Yuta wasn’t sure if they deserved his trust, but his gut told him he did the right thing. 

 

“I don’t get it, Donghyuck, if you would finish your sentences, maybe I’d understand what you’re talking about.”

“I mean, that you can definitely trust him, because he gets Dongyoung’s problem.”

Two voices filtered through the door, in which the tunnel he had Ten had taken ended.

“That’s them.” Ten informed him and Yuta nodded, so the older vampire opened the door. Two teenagers stood in a coldly lit hallway, screaming when they noticed the two new-comers. Surely, screaming was ideal, when you wanted to get someone out of a high security holding cell without anyone noticing.

Then again, humans had awful senses.

“God, you scared the hell out of me.” The shorter of the two complained to Ten, voice high and whiny, before he started looking at Yuta, the curiosity painted into his face. It was like reading an open book. Cute, innocent… someone to protect, Yuta thought.

“This is my bodyguard, just in case you are trying to frame me.” Ten introduced him, attention on the other boy now and Yuta couldn’t hold the big grin behind the mask he was wearing. It felt kind of good, to be introduced with such a title.

“We’re not, I swear! Nice to meet you, I’m Lee Donghyuck, Ten’s most adorable dancing student and hunter in training.” The smaller boy said and beamed at Yuta. Urgh, he was really precious…

“Uh. Hi, I’m Mark Lee.” Precious Donghyuck and Awkward Mark, Yuta named the two in his brain, but if they were Hunters in training, they surely were up to date with the data base, where they listed people they were looking for, so why not have a little fun with this? He pulled down his facemask and smiled his most winning smile.

“Hi. I’m Yuta.”

And Awkward Mark didn’t disappoint. His face, that was full of doubt and worry, dropped, his jaw went slack and his eyes widened. Donghyuck seemed unaffected and started scrolling on his phone. Ten cleared his throat.

Mark seemed to remember how his muscles were controlled and a finger came up, pointing at Yuta. “You’re a vampire! You’re on our list!” he stuttered and Yuta bathed in the attention a little. At least one good thing had come out of that mess. 

“Yes, I am. Unfortunately.” 

“Donghyuck, what is this…” Mark grabbed the other boy, full on panicking now, his heart racing and Yuta felt a little bit bad, if it wasn’t for the clear misinformation the boy was under, which was why he was currently panicking as he did.

The question was…

Why was Donghyuck so unaffected?

“I told you, Ten would understand!” Donghyuck snapped and pushed Mark off, who turned to now gape at Ten, putting two and two together.

“You’re a vampire, too?” Mark’s voice came out as a tiny shriek.

Yuta turned to look at his coven mate and raised his eyebrow. How on earth did Donghyuck know this? 

“Alright, let’s get going. It’s actually right down here. The cells are designed to hold wolves, but they used one for Dongyoung. They shackled him with silver, is that a problem? Because the unions says it burns vampires, but I stopped believing everything they say, so I wondered.”

“It doesn’t, and silver is quite soft, so it’s dumb to use that. He can snap right through that.” Yuta answered with a shake of his head and they followed Donghyuck down the dark corridor. Fiction definitely had helped throwing the Hunters off a bit.

“Hello? Aren’t we going to talk about how we’re leading two vampires to free a vampire from the Hunters’ headquarters? If anyone finds out, we’re in just as much shit!” Mark panicked, stumbling after them.

“No, we’re rescuing Dongyoung from the sadists at medical, now get over it, Mark.” Donghyuck shot back and Mark shut up.

 

The cells had reinforced steel doors, without a window to the outside, but Donghyuck seemed to know which was the right one, because he stopped right in front of it.

“Um…” Donghyuck turned to them with a shy smile. “Does someone of you know how to pick locks… really complex locks… by any chance?”

Yuta sighed internally. “Should have brought Lucas.”, because Lucas had decided that as an immortal supernatural being, he had to have the skill, to be cool. No one else really understood that train of thought, but Lucas had been very happy about it and no one really got hurt.

“Are there more vampires?” Mark whispered panicked and Yuta couldn’t hold himself from rolling his eyes. What did they even teach the baby-Hunters here?

“Sweety… there’s a ton of vampires and wolves in this city, who just live here and don’t harm anyone.” He explained and tapped Mark’s nose, who seemed to only now realise he stood next to a scary vampire and backed away, like a cornered animal from a wolf.

“Oh, this isn’t as heavy as they make it seem. I think I can kick this down.” Ten announced and Yuta stepped away to give Ten a bit of space. And to avoid possibly fly-away.

“What? No, no, no, this is steel, with at least three deadbolts, this doesn’t give in under a kick.” Mark marched past Yuta, which was about as smart as it sounded.

“Yes, baby Hunter, you can’t kick this down. I probably can.” Ten pushed the boy back into Yuta’s arms, who pulled him behind him. Just in case. Mark was awkward, but he was sort of funny to have around and Yuta also wasn’t sure he wanted to see a busted in skull.

Ten launched himself at the door. A loud bang echoed down the hall, followed by the sound of breaking metal. Seemed like a success to Yuta.

“Fuck. I don’t think I want to become a Hunter anymore. I didn’t know vampires were this strong.” Donghyuck whispered, looking past Yuta, where Ten pushed the door open.

“Two go inside, two stay and guard.” Ten announced, already heading past the threshold. Donghyuck was behind him in a blink of an eye, so Yuta and Mark stayed in the hallway. 

The Hunter didn’t take his eyes off Yuta for a second, looking very judgemental. 

“You know, you should stop thinking I’ll jump you any second, you know? We’re not some bloodthirsty monster that you make us out to be. It’s offensive.”

Mark sputtered, but didn’t look away, still seeming doubtful.

“I… I don’t think that.”

“You do. It’s fine. You probably don’t personally know any vampires, only the stories the Union told you.”

“Maybe.”

More metal breaking came from the room.

“If I got injured, like, bleeding. Would you want to eat me?”

“Nah. I had blood this morning, and to be honest, type A is rather nasty.”

Mark’s eye budged and Yuta grinned, turning to Ten, who came from the room, with a limp body over his shoulder. 

 

“You’re on our list!” newly turned, freshly awoken vampires shouldn’t be judging their seniors like this, Yuta decided. No respect for their elder, these days. Or, well, he should be honoured he was basically famous at this point.

“I am.”

“You were at EXO, on the 2nd of November last year, but escaped Jinyoung, when he tried to stake you. But we got the surveillance footage from Kim Junmyeon, who runs the club.”

Yuta stared at the Dongyoung with a blank face. Why on earth did he know all that? Should he give an autograph?

“Yes, so I heard. Kris told us they had to protect the pack.”

“The pack?” Doyoung screeched “They’re werewolves?”

“Is it possible for vampires to have a heart attack?” Jungwoo softly asked.

“Well, if it is, I think we’ll be live witnesses to it.” Taeil answered. 

 

Dongyoung was settled on the sofa, for now, because they were out of spare rooms and this was already as big as flats in Seoul came, so they’d have to split the coven up. But right now, that seemed like a bad idea. Maybe once the danger had blown over for good and they didn’t have a whole coven’s worth of baby Vampires to get accustomed to the lifestyle.

Dongyoung was just as chained to the flat as Yuta, maybe even more so, because he was a Hunter and had escaped the depths of their prisons. It was pretty nice, because Dongyoung had the shortest fuse Yuta had ever experienced and got riled up by everything.

It was like a gust of fresh wind, that you didn’t expect to be so relieving and nice, until it was blowing the hair out of your face.

 

But there was something else to clear, before teasing Dongyoung some more.

“How come Donghyuck wasn’t surprised at all by the fact you were a vampire?” Yuta whispered, knowing to keep his voice down.

Ten was on the ground, stretching. He did that every morning.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Yuta sat down next to him, and by force of habit, he started going through some moves, Sicheng’s deep voice echoing in the back of his mind.

“Don’t play. I want the truth or I’m telling Kun.”

“What are we? Toddlers, scared of our mom?” Ten huffed. Yuta raised an eyebrow. “Okay, okay, I’m telling you already. He was the boy that was there, when the newly turned attacked at the studio some weeks ago. Yuri told me to wipe his mind, but he begged me not to, so I only muzzled him.”

Yuta hummed. As one of the queens, it was unwise to go against Yuri’s words. But their coven was generally not known to be very… in line. Just enough not to face consequences.

“Alright, I get that. He’s really cute. Seems bright, too.”

“Very.”

 

It was near impossible to catch Taeil alone. But Yuta was persisted and when Sicheng was getting introduced to the Nintendo Wii by Dongyoung, who seemed very capable of being their tech support, because his explanations actually made sense and he knew his way around everything Yuta could think of and then some.

Those and then some had been very surprising, for example, people had made new watches, that were complicated to use. And then called them smart watches. Probably, because they were smarter than Yuta. It seemed sort of idiotic, but Dongyoung seemed very set that they were useful.

“Hey, do you have a second?” Yuta asked, poking his head into Taeil’s room.

The nurse was hunched over a book, but pushed it aside, when he saw Yuta. “Yes, of course, come in.”

Yuta did as told and closed the door to muffle the sound a little. They didn’t normally listen in to private conversations on purpose, but sometimes you’d overhear things. 

“So, I wanted to apologise for being pretty rude, when you first came. I wanted to do it earlier, but… yeah, there was no chance really.”

Taeil looked surprised and shuffled some pencils over each other awkwardly. “Uh, it’s fine. Thanks, though. Are we good now?”

“Yeah, I hope so. I might have been a bit jealous without a reason to. Yeah. Because I have a bit of a crush on Sicheng and he was so… around you. I know it’s dumb, but I felt petty.”

Taeil was desperately trying to hide a laugh with coughing. “Kind of. But don’t worry, it’s impossible to miss, I would have never gone to steal your man. Not to mention that I think of him of an older brother, if anything. I couldn’t.”

“Ah. That’s a relief. So we aren’t rivals in love?”

“What kind of word is that even? No, we aren’t. Love isn’t really for me, the romantic kind, I mean. So all worries were over nothing.”

“Seems like that.” Yuta sighed. It was still a weight off his chest. It might have created an awkward relationship, or worse. And Taeil really was a wonderful, calm addition to the rather… irrational coven.

“To be honest, there’s something I’ve been curious for some time, but also didn’t get the chance to investigate. You said how you only like type B and dislike pure blood. I’ve always been pretty fascinated by that, but now even more that I know what blood tastes like to vampires. Has it always been like that?”

“Not really, no. I prefered type B right off and I started disliking the other three quite soon. But I only started to get grossed out by blood on its own when I stopped drinking from the source. I’m honestly so grateful for your work, because I really don’t want to go back to hunting in clubs.” Yuta shuddered.

“But you could drink other types, right?” Taeil inquired, taking notes. Yuta felt a bit like he was turning into a study subject, but hey. The least he could do to make up for being an arse.

“Yeah.”

“So no intolerance. Say, which blood type did you use to be? Maybe that connects…”

“No luck for you, I used to be type A.” Yuta laughed as Taeil frowned at the notes a bit.

“Well, not that then. But seriously it’s an interesting question, in my opinion. I’ll come up with a few more scenarios, if that’s fine with you?”

“Sure, be my friend, but I think it’s just being picky, like kids who don’t like vegetables.”

 

“Hey.”

Yuta screamed. He really should be used to getting a visitor in the shower by now, but he wasn’t.

“Ah, sorry, I was too quiet again.” Sicheng ruffled his hair sheepishly.

“Don’t worry. Come inside, the warm air is leaving.” Yuta waved him inside and stood back under the water to wash out the cherry blossom scented shampoo. His normal type had been gone for quite some time, and this one was there instead.

Sicheng quietly soaked the towel, while Yuta sorted through the body wash – the number of bottles was really getting out of hand. Maybe he should gift some of these to the other two bathrooms, to be used up… 

“Do you like Seabreeze?” Yuta asked holding the bottle up for Sicheng to smell.

“Whatever you choose is fine. I like them all.”

“Well, Seabreeze it is then.” Yuta got back up and turned. He had stopped feeling self-conscious after a few times.

Sicheng handed him the towel, Yuta soaped it up and he started massaging his back.

“May I ask a question?” Sicheng eventually asked, when Yuta deemed his back done and was about to rinse the towel. He already knew Seabreeze wasn’t going to be Sicheng’s choice. He always, without fail, used cherry blossom on him. So he took the bottle and squeezed some of it on the towel.

“That’s already a question.” Yuta sing-sang and Sicheng turned in a whirl.

“You’re right! It is!” his face was so bright and happy, and Yuta couldn’t help, but reach over and pinch his cheek. “I never realised that. Sorry, so I’ll need another question.”

“Sure, fire away.”

Sicheng’s smile turned serious again. “Are you genuinely not going to stop trying to… court me?”

“Nope.” Yuta shook his head. Sicheng started rubbing his back now. It was such a relieving feeling. The silence was thick and Yuta thought this was a good time as ever to go and tell Sicheng a bit about himself. 

He kept it short, but tried to make it genuine, not too dramatic, but not trivialising it. Sicheng finished washing him, then himself and by the time Yuta finished, they were both wrapped in towels, sharing the hairdryer. 

“So, I think I can differentiate between you now, and you back then, because I like to do it on myself. I was a really awful person, during that time, and I did dumb things because of love. So did you. I don’t mean I’m going to ignore your past. But I think you’re trying your best to make things right, and you got into that situation without much of your own doing. They basically broke you, made you do their biddings and when you were faced with a situation as traumatic as being insulted by the person you loved, you didn’t know how to properly react anymore. But like you said. You found yourself again.

“I also found myself again and I know for sure I’m not going to lose it again.”

Sicheng nodded, eyes focussed on Yuta’s face, the stare type during which he soaked up every detail that he was told. 

“So, when you say you won’t, I can believe you.” Yuta smiled and Sicheng dropped his head, his chin hitting his chest. 

“Thank you.” Sicheng’s voice was nothing but a whisper, and Yuta’s smile never faded the rest of the day and his sleep was dreamless and deep.

 

“Wait, so… Taeyong and Jaehyun are a couple?” Dongyoung had a notepad on which he was writing down facts about all coven mates. To get to know their backgrounds, so he could make good conversation with them. Yuta worried over their newest addition. He also loved to throw around fun facts, as he called them. Sometimes they were actually funny. During the making of today’s breakfast smoothie, Yuta had learnt from him, that the rumour about garlic being a problem stemmed from the old belief that vampires had very good noses and would hate the smell.

Yuta would take garlic over blood type A any day, but hey. Stoker couldn’t have known that. Dude had written Dracula before his turning, or he would have given him an exclusive interview.

“Yep, you’ll notice that without mistake pretty soon, as they’re all cute and shit. But don’t let that fool you, the two are into BDSM, which is why no one wants to live with them.” Yuta smiled as Dongyoung’s pencil snapped on the page.

“Right.” The former Hunter cleared his throat. “So, if Ten is with Johnny, and Taeyong and Jaehyun are a couple… your coven really has a large percentage of homosexual males… definitely above the one in eight average.”

“The what now?”

Dongyoung looked up at him with round eyes. “Average. On average they say one person in eight is gay or lesbian.”

Yuta waited for the pun. It never came.

“You sure? Sexuality and gender aren’t a fixed, binary thing, in 2018 I thought that was common knowledge.”

Dongyoung looked confused. “So, you mean you simply have more than the average? Alright. So, when was Lucas born?”

“1991, true 90s kid, so he says. And what I mean to say is, that I don’t think only one person in eight is interested in the other gender and it’s much to oversimplified to even break it down to this. You could have a boy crush and still think of yourself as straight, then there’s bi, pan, demi and so on. Not to mention that not all people fit into binary gender stereotypes. And that aside, this coven is gay as fuck. Are you straight? You could be our quota straight.”

Dongyoung stared at him for a few more beats, before mumbling “I thought you were a pretty big airhead to be honest, because of how childish you behave and all that Shoujo anime, but you’re actually pretty smart, huh?”

“If that was supposed to be a compliment, try again.”

“Wait, quota straight? No one of you is straight?”

“Nope. I thought Taeil possibly, but nope. If you want to go and hit on girls, you can take Kun and Lucas, though, they generally play for both teams.”

“Uh…” 

“Though Lucas might be off the market, if his and Jungwoo’s hand-holding was anything to go by…”

“Jungwoo? He asked me to give him a kiss yesterday.” Dongyoung looked slightly pained.

“Oh, interesting.” Yuta grinned.

“Anyway, getting back on topic.” Dongyoung cleared his throat and held the notepad back up “Where was Lucas born?”

“Guys? There’s attack downtown. Two malls are infested with vampires, it’s in the news.” Taeil burst through the door of Yuta’s room.

They both jumped off the bed and rushed into the living room, where the TV was running. Ten and Jungwoo joint them, and not a moment later, Yuta’s phone rang.

“Guys, are you watching the news?” Kun’s voice came over the line.

“Yes. Of course, we are.”

“Good. Jessica called, they are going to check the area, trying to find the puppet master, since all of them are probably bewitched. To cover all the possible areas, they want us to help. The situation isn’t under control, but a complete mess, so it could still take some time. It seems, our troublemaker trained her minions well. Who’s coming? We need to scan the parking garages of all buildings around the mall.”

“Are we going alone or in teams?” Sicheng immediately asked, seeming above the situation. But Yuta wasn’t as easily fooled into thinking Sicheng was simply experienced to the point that he was unphased. He was putting up a façade to hide he didn’t want anyone to get harmed.

“We have a huge area to cover, so teams of two, keep in touch via phone. The girls and other covens were on the scene was well. Yuta, Dongyoung, there’s Hunters everywhere and they kill on sight and without asking questions, you’re staying back.”

Yuta groaned and flopped on the sofa. But he was right. It was suicidal. And there wasn’t anything he could do the others couldn’t, so there was no point in him going. He only listened with half an ear, as Kun assigned parking garages and storage units to the coven members.

As the others left the flat, grabbing shoes and coats in a flurry, a very bad feeling settled in his stomach and Yuta wondered, if his infamous bad luck was going to make his life hard again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we’re getting to 4IMLN’s showdown, but that will not be the end for this story. I have “three months” between this and the epilogue / Windows 95 starting that I am going to put to good use to give Yuwin more story, because it’s so difficult to write within the confinements of another story, so I couldn’t fit it in earlier or the timeline would blow up.
> 
> Also, this story has a lot of murder and drama and dark pasts but way too little happiness and smut so far, especially compared to the other parts of this AU. I’m very apologetic. It’s coming. Soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Dongyoung and Yuta were glued to the TV screen that kept them up to date, plus the bird-app on Dongyoung’s phone that gave him updates from people that were around the scenes. 

“Those are the guards that keep the vampires in the malls?” Yuta asked, when the camera angle shifted.

“Yes, it’s protocol how to lock down places that are infested.”

“Cute, but you could just zoom past that and they wouldn’t even notice.”

“Zoom?”

“Run fast. Even baby-vampires can do it, comes with the better strength. It exhausts you in the long run, depending on how much you train and how old you are. The older, the stronger.”

Dongyoung hummed. “Well, it seems to work though. The vampires are still inside, getting chased and taken down.”

“But slowly. They’ve been at it for almost an hour. This is a diversionary tactic, it’s plain as day. I hope they find something soon.” Yuta looked at his phone again. There was a new text from Jungwoo to the group chat they had made, reporting another empty garage. It possibly was good to have the Hunters out of their hair, but it was also stupid to think that anything that was going according to plan was to work out in their favour.

“But nothing else has blown up yet.” Dongyoung pointed out.

“Yet. That’s the point. Once it does, everyone is exhausted.” Yuta tried to find something on the screen, but nothing. 

Until after a bit more worrying and waiting, one of the malls was confirmed as cleared, all threats liquidised. That was very… sudden, to take out three vampires, after it had taken so long to even get one before… Yuta stared at the screen and…

“That’s fucking Johnny. Ten’s not-boyfriend.” Yuta screamed and pointed at the screen that showed police leaving the place. “Who’s with Ten?”

“Uh, if I remember correctly, it was Taeyong and Jaehyun, Sicheng and Taeil, Lucas and Ten, and Kun and Jungwoo.” Dongyoung supplied.

Yuta pulled up Lucas’ contact information and the line quickly connected.

“Lucas? Where’s Ten? Where are you?”

“Ten? Uh, no clue, he’s with Taeil, I think. We’re almost done checked everything we were supposed to, and are coming back in a bit.” Lucas was a bit out of breath.

“What? Dongyoung said he was with you. Who’re you with?”

“No, I’m with Jaehyun.”

“Fine, see you later.” Yuta ended the call and tried Taeil next. It took two tries to get him, but Taeil told him that, no, Ten was supposed to be with Lucas, and he was with Sicheng and Taeyong.

Yuta glared at the TV and called Ten, but there was no answer. Ten also was the only person without a smart phone, because he hated them, so he wasn’t in the group chat, which was why no one had noticed he was missing yet. That smart arsehole. 

Only, Yuta understood. He might have done the same thing in the situation, no matter how ridiculous it was. And how fucking dangerous, since you couldn’t know how well trained exactly these new turns were. A risk you might be willing to take for love. But now that he was done, Ten would surely turn back up here, get his ear chewed off by Kun and go his merry way.

 

Only when all the other were back, Ten was still missing.

“What do you mean he wasn’t with you? I made teams of two, not of three.” Kun hissed. 

“I’m sorry, he told me it changed.” Lucas waved his hands in front of him. “And that I should go with Jae.”

“Yeah, it made sense, Ten could have changed it…” Jaehyun defended himself. 

“Ten is not leader of this coven and he is dating this… this Hunter, that probably staked him, among with the other newly turned vampires in that fucking mall.” Kun snarled and knocked his fist on the table, that cracked clean through.

“Uh. This might be a bad time, but I’m pretty sure Johnny wouldn’t do that, he’s a real romantic.”

“If he didn’t, one of your other former co-workers did, it’s really all they care about.” Kun shut Dongyoung up, who looked down in shame. Yuta couldn’t even defend him. It was true. He nibbled on his finger nails and hoped Ten would just magically appear and Kun’s rage blow over. 

“Yuta, inform Sooyoung or another one of the situation. I need to know where that Hunter of Ten’s is, because that’s either where he is, too, or he knows where Ten was last.”

All Yuta could do was nod and dial the number with trembling fingers, while Kun got in touch with other people from around the city.

 

The coven cowered on the carpet, waiting for Kun to return from his phone call, when Yuta’s phone chimed with a new message.

 

[10 out of 10]  
Staw imsidd! no gn out. Humtr 2. 

[10 out of 10]  
I fbkd uq. try. sdohvun’s kilner. 

 

Yuta stared at the messages, trying to figure out what they meant, when Kun burst back inside from the kitchen.

“Guys, he’s not dead. I think. He texted me, that Seohyun’s the killer and has him kidnapped.”

“Oh, yes, that’s what this means. Wait. Seohyun? She’s dead, though.” Yuta pieced together the letters in a way that made sense now.

“I have no idea. I just don’t know where, but…” his phone rang.

“We have that Hunter’s phone. He’s in or under Sinsegae in Myeongdong, stopped moving just now. We’ll be there, you can come and look, if Ten’s there.” Jessica, from Taeyeon’s coven, sharply instructed Kun, before the line went dead again. Yuta jumped off the sofa, but Kun raised an eyebrow and Sicheng pushed him back down.

“Stay here, please.” Sicheng whispered.

“Will you be fine?” Yuta asked, furrowing his brows.

“I will.”

 

So, Yuta paced. Up and down. While Dongyoung read out loud every message they got. 

“They have a hideout under Sinsegae.”

“How did a fancy as fuck shopping mall not notice they had a vampire problem in the cellar? They sell Hermès there, for god’s sake, you’d think they have special security for their Birkins or something.”

“What is that even. Okay, there’s a lot of new vampires and the girls aren’t showing mercy. Wait. Are they killing them?”

Yuta rubbed his face. “Probably. They keep a very tight lock on how many vampire there are in Seoul, which is why you need permission to turn someone. The city can’t take too many vampires, or the system of getting blood and disappearing from time to time, not to mention the illegal renting, collapses. We were lucky we got you past, because they announced they wouldn’t allow new turns anymore.”

“What? They just kill them? How is that better than what the Hunters do? We at least think we have a serious problem on our hands and want to keep the general public safe!”

“The girls reign and they do it well. I never said their rules and their means are good. But if I voice that out…” Yuta drew two fingers over his throat “And we do need rules, or it wouldn’t work.”.

Dongyoung seemed very distressed by this news. But Yuta didn’t have time for other peoples’ distress.

“Is there something new?”

“No.”

“God, can they hurry?”

“Maybe there’s no reception?”

“This is South Korea. Come on, who’s the technology dinosaur here?”

“Well, it’s concrete and steel, that messes with reception.”

“God, I want to go there right now.” Yuta threw his hands up, like that’d change anything. He seriously considered just going against orders. But would that really help? No.

“Wait, Jungwoo’s typing.”

Yuta held his breath. One… two… three, four, fivesixseven

Yuta’s phone rang.

“Taeyong?”

“Kun found him! And Johnny. They’re fine… pretty fine. Well, Ten got drained, but he didn’t kill Johnny, so that’s good. But he needs blood, can you get something ready?”

Yuta could hold back a small sob of relief and dropped the phone. The crack didn’t sound too good and Dongyoung yelped and dove after the device, but it looked like any help was too late. Seriously, phones used to be sturdier! He left the youngster to gasp over the smashed device and marched into the kitchen to grab some delicious Mango, that Ten was sure to hate.

 

Kun had Ten over his back, limp and dirty, but awake. Yuta caught a glance of Johnny, before he got herded away for treatment, so he was the source of the scent of type B. Good taste…

Kun put him down on the kitchen floor unceremoniously and Yuta squatted down.

“Tennie! You have no clue how fucking worried I was! I was, in fact, so worried, I almost went after Sicheng, when he told me specifically to not get my arse into danger! So, as the fair punishment for putting me through hell, I put your triple dose of Type 0, nice and bland, into this wonderful mango smoothie!” 

Yuta held the tall glass in front of Ten, whose eyes immediately flashed red. He ripped it from his hands and downed it in one go. Yuta laughed a bit, as Ten started coughing only a moment later.

“I’m really sorry.”

“I can forgive you. Because I get why you did it. It was still dumb, though.”

“I know.”

“So, tell me, how did lover boy take the undead situation?”

“He already knew. He fucking knew, god, I was so sure I was sneaky. But no.”

“And he’s fine with it? No staking?”

Ten nodded and smiled serenely, before his eyes started to drop shut.

Yuta stood and pulled his coven mate from the kitchen floor to carry him to his room. Ten didn’t even move when he put him on his bed, that was how knocked out he was. Yuta sighed and ripped clean through the shirt, that was dirties with blood and dust. It wasn’t like it could be saved, apparently it had been deemed necessary to cut through the sleeves. His pants went next and then Yuta burrito wrapped him up and set to leave.

Only to almost smash into Johnny on his way out. Which, Johnny wasn’t easy to overlook, the man was sort of build like a closet. 

“Hey, sorry, I don’t think we got introduced yet.” Johnny smiled “I’m Johnny Seo.”

“Yes, I know. I’m Yuta.” 

“Oh!” Johnny’s eyes widened. “You’re Yuta? Ten talks about you… a lot.”

Did he? That was cute.

“I… Taeil send me here to sleep, but is he fine?” Johnny looked past him with worry.

“Yep, he’s just tired, his system has to recover from the shock, but he’ll be back to his annoying self within 24 hours, I promise.”

Johnny laughed at that. “You’re pretty much how I would have imagined. Say, is it fine, if I sleep next to him? Cuddle, maybe? Or rather not? I’ve been trying to look past what I’ve been taught, as it seems to be pretty wrong, but I’m still not up to date with how vampires actually work and what’s a rumour.”

“That’s fine, I’m sure you’ll get around soon enough. And to answer your question, you definitely can. Thank god we no longer have to take care of his post-sex cuddly self, all yours now.” Yuta chirped and waltzed past a momentarily stunned Johnny with a cackle. 

In the living room, Kun, Taeil, Taeyong, Jaehyun, Lucas and Jungwoo were getting dressed. Yuta smelled alcohol. 

“Hey Yuta, we decided we needed something strong to get over the shock of the day. Hunters will be pretty much out of commission, anyway.” Kun smiled “Sorry for that. But Sicheng said he was going to stay.”

Yuta shrugged. He didn’t feel like dancing anyway, so it didn’t actually bother him. Especially, if Sicheng was going to be here.

“I hope you aren’t sad!” Taeyong snaked his arms around Yuta, breath smelling of Soju. His tolerance was laughably low, which was why he was already behaving like most others wouldn’t before 2 am.

“I’m not, don’t worry. Have fun.” Yuta carefully unwrapped Taeyong from himself and directed him to his boyfriend’s arm instead. Taeyong hopped on Jaehyun’s back and snuggled his cheek against his, making Jaehyun laugh and ruffle his hair affectionately. 

 

Dongyoung announced he was going to sleep, which, okay, boring, so Yuta found himself headed for the kitchen, from where low humming told him Sicheng was.

The Chinese was slumped over the kitchen table, eyes fixed on a bottle of alcohol, like it was the holy grail. Yuta wondered, how drunk he was. Sicheng looked up and his face looked so unguarded, so adorable, Yuta swooned. 

“Yuta!” he called in excitement and started patting the bench next to himself so furiously, Yuta was afraid it’d crack, just like the sofa table earlier.

But who was Yuta to say no to this cute ball of sunshine calling him to sit with him?

“Hey.” Yuta slipped down and took the soju from Sicheng while he was still distracted.

“Did you know they made a summer flavour of Soju? It tastes super gross!” Sicheng asked, still beaming and Yuta decided to just go for it, and wrapped and arm around his shoulders to sit closer. To his utter surprise, Sicheng didn’t stiffen and tolerate him, how he usually did, but snuggled against his side, wrapping his own arm around Yuta’s waist and nuzzled his face into his neck.

“I did know that.”

“Yeah, of course you did. You know really much, much, much things. You’re so smart.” Sicheng’s voice got muffled from Yuta’s clothing a little. “So, so, so wonderful. I like you so, so, so much.”

Yuta’s stomach clenched at the words. They said the truth lay in alcohol. But why couldn’t Sicheng tell him this when he was sober? Yuta stared at the bottle, while Sicheng hummed an old Chinese tune to himself, and decided to fuck it and took a big swing. 

“Then why are you opposed to my courting?”

“Because.” Sicheng pushed himself tighter against Yuta, who didn’t expect it, nor had the strength of a vampire that was multiple millennia old and toppled off the bench, Sicheng on top of him, still clinging onto him. “Because… I’m a bad person.” Sicheng nosed against Yuta’s throat now and he felt goose bumps build on his skin, the words making less and less sense in his head.

“But I don’t care. I still love you.” Yuta whined. “Just… give yourself a chance.”

Sicheng didn’t answer, but he pulled away a little and stared straight at Yuta, eyes swimming in countless emotions, all mixed together from the alcohol. He felt a hand gently cup his jaw, angling his head up a little, and then, Sicheng was kissing him, tenderly, softly at first, growing hungrier quickly, until he eagerly licked into Yuta’s mouth.

Yuta sighed and opened up so easily under Sicheng, fuelled on by the slight light headedness the alcohol had given him. Sicheng definitely knew what he was doing, as he licked over sensitive parts in his mouth, while his fingers threw small circles on Yuta’s jaw. 

And it just felt so right, despite the kitchen floor being hard and uncomfortable. Yuta didn’t want to ever stop. He wanted this, for eternity. The thought crossed his mind, but was blown away under the continuing ministrations from Sicheng, his full attention going to how his tongue played against his and how blood started rushing south, his stomach getting fluttery. 

Yuta in a sober state wouldn’t have initiated anything, too scared to break the moment. But slightly tipsy Yuta wanted more, so he hooked his fingers into the belt loops on Sicheng’s jeans and pulled him down, until their hips pushed against each other and a small moan of relief pulled from his gut at the pressure on his hard dick.

Sicheng huffed into his mouth, getting a little sloppy, as Yuta started to grind upwards, getting just enough room to push himself against Sicheng’s bulge, knowing that they’d both get something out of this. It took a few more seconds of riling him up, but then, Sicheng reciprocated the movement and Yuta dug his fingers into his hips, hard, from the intensity.

For someone as old as him, it was pretty embarrassing to say, he came within five minutes flat, his jeans still on, on the kitchen floor. But it was the pathetic truth and Yuta gasped, as he felt his gut clench, pleasure making him forget where he was for a moment. 

Sicheng didn’t stop moving, but Yuta quickly got oversensitive, as his dick softened, so he pushed his hand between them and palmed him through his jeans. Sicheng’s eyelashes fluttered and a long sigh left his lips, before his body trembled and froze, as he came. 

Yuta watched him, wanting to take every second in. He was so beautiful, in everything he did. It made him almost cry, because he was scared that Sicheng would pull away more after this. 

Another tender, sweet kiss brought Yuta back to reality, where Sicheng was opening up to him, accepting him and himself through the help of a bit of alcohol. 

Lethargy took over and Sicheng stopped holding himself up, as the kisses got lazier and then completely stopped and Yuta found himself buried under a life-sized blanket – still on the tiles of the goddamn kitchen. Romantic.

He managed to manhandle him off, get up and picked up Sicheng. His pants clung uncomfortably to his skin under his jeans and Yuta yearned for a shower.

Dongyoung was on the sofa, fixed to his phone and looked up with a glare. It wasn’t intimidating, but Yuta still smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I thought we were keeping it down. I’ll bring this one to bed now.”

“Good. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the sacrilegious things you did in the kitchen, but let me tell you, it wasn’t quiet.”

Yuta shrugged and made his way down the hall to his room. Cum was gross and sticky and a true pain once dried, but he also didn’t really want to strip and clean Sicheng without consent, so he put him in his bed and went to shower alone, then slipped into bed next to him.

His dreams weren’t fun, but they didn’t wake him.

 

Yuta rose the earliest, with the sun, as he usually did during the warmer months. He contemplated staying, but after ten minutes of trying to lay still, he decided this wasn’t for him. Not to mention his brilliant mood had to be put to good use. 

He looked into the entrance hall to see if their roommates had even returned, but only Taeil’s shoes were there. Jungwoo’s weren’t, but it wasn’t hard to guess in whose bed he had ended up last night, so Yuta wasn’t worried. He scouted the fridge for something that a human could breakfast and prepared smoothies. 

But he didn’t get far, because when he turned to the blender, Sicheng stood in his way, looking slightly out of it.

“Hey. You good? Hungover?” Yuta asked, setting the melons to the side. Sicheng smelled very distinctly of sex and Ten would not let him live this down for the next 300 years, if he found them like this. 

“Hungover?” Sicheng asked, puzzled, but the haunted expression disappeared, turning into his cute confused one. 

“Because you drank. Do you feel sick? Tired? Headache?”

“Those… no. It’s been much too long, it would have already healed on its own.”

Right, his healing time was probably less than 24 hours. Kun healed a little faster than that, too. Yuta decided to test the waters and slipped his hand into Sicheng’s, nuzzling against his arm. 

“Did you sleep well? I slept like the dead.”

It was a small white lie, but compared to recently, a few bad dreams were nothing for him. Sicheng took a second, then he chuckled over the lame pun. “Yeah, I slept well, too.”

“Good, then maybe you want to consider a shower… no offence.” Yuta looked down and Sicheng looked down himself, before sputtering a bit.

“Oh shit… I… yeah, I’ll do that right now. I just – uh. I needed to make sure you were fine.”

The reason went unspoken, but Yuta knew why. 

“I am. Thanks for checking on me. Do you want dragon fruit for breakfast?”

“Yeah, that’d be amazing. Thank you.”

Yuta pumped his fist in the air, when Sicheng was gone. Small victories, baby steps, but these were steps forward. 

 

Dongyoung was the next to rise, Johnny was much too excited over the worst breakfast of the century that Yuta had prepared and Ten still behaved like he was a bit high. He giggled over everything, no matter if it was actually funny.

Yuta couldn’t stop himself from checking his pupils, but they were normal. It was just lingering effects from the blood loss. No drugs. Ten never did drugs, at least not knowingly, Yuta reminded himself. He patted Ten’s cheek, who was giggling over the form of bananas like some teenage boy.

 

It was past noon, when Kun appeared on the threshold, looking like death warmed up. That was rare for him, but Yuta completely understood how he would take the chance to celebrate last night. As the leader, he could only imagine how much worse the stress had been on him. 

“What are you even doing here? You should just rest.” Yuta sighed, as he pushed past him – wobbled really.

“Oh no, I have a shift in half an hour.”

“You are not going to work like this?!” Yuta had to have misunderstood.

“Yes I am. I’m fine. I can’t run from the consequences of my actions.” Kun hissed and almost slammed into the kitchen doorframe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoever is still around after this trip… hi! Thanks! I’ll try to keep the mood a bit lighter from now on (so she said and went off to write more angst) (jk, it'll actually get more light-hearted from now on)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I consider this the pre-epilogue. There’s no violence and blood and death, little angst and… *squints* fluff? Because I made these two suffer enough and am just going to write a very long, happy ending for them now. Oh, and smut.
> 
> Plus, the Regular MV for Way V came out, remember to stream and give them lots of support!

“Go down lower, try and extend your arms more.” Sicheng gently pushed on Yuta’s shoulder. They had moved Tai Chi classes to the Chinese’s room, because Dongyoung already had the misfortune of living in their shared space, so they all tried to give him as much privacy as possible. 

The last days had been a whirl of things going down. Ten had recovered from his blood loss well and Kun got the news, that the girls were fighting, seriously fighting, over the aftermath of Seohyun’s treason. Donghyuck had invaded their flat in search of Johnny and sobbed into Dongyoung’s shirt for about an hour, which had been pretty heart breaking. Eventually, Mark had come to pick him up, but hadn’t dared come inside, eyes as big as saucers, while he stared at Yuta, who took the chance to scare the Hunter.

You couldn’t get on that list twice, after all.

But overall, things had finally quieted down for good. With Seohyun gone, the true culprit had been caught and any worries she might have been a puppet in a bigger game were over nothing. Thank god, because Yuta might have actually gone insane, if not.

“I can’t, this is not physically possible.” Yuta whined. The inside of his thighs were already burning like there was some long-term damage being done to them and he kept groaning whenever he accidentally breathed wrong and put more pull on his body.

“Come on, you can do it, it’ll be feel good later.” Sicheng explained and pushed him down a little, making Yuta yelp.

“No, I can’t!”

The door flung open, a ruffled Jungwoo in the frame, looking around the room with wide eyes.

“Oh, you’re doing workout.” He said after a moment of taking in the picture of Yuta suffering in his squat, with Sicheng holding his shoulders.

“What else should we be doing?” Sicheng asked in genuine confusion and Yuta wondered, if Jungwoo always marched in on people he thought here having sex with this much force.

“Uh. Nothing. Sorry.” Lies. “Taeil asked, if you were coming to hospital, his shift is in an hour.”

“Yes, of course, I told him we would.” Sicheng chirped, like Jungwoo had actually come here for that, and released Yuta, who let himself flop onto the ground dramatically. His break didn’t last, as Sicheng was already demonstrating the next position before Jungwoo had even closed the door.

 

They miraculously finished with Yuta’s body not broken into two at some joint. Sicheng said he had gotten more flexible, but Yuta wasn’t sure where. He wobbled into his own room, while Sicheng got changed into something to wear at the hospital and seem unassuming. 

The thing was, you could just sit in a hospital all day, switching between waiting areas and tell the nurses you were waiting for you father/mother/sister/uncle/friend/arch nemesis to get treated and no one really cared.

Yuta knew that from first-hand experience, because he had started going there with Sicheng. There was no real need to guard Taeil anymore, but Sicheng had seemed very upset by the idea of leaving his mentee go alone. Taeil, ever ready to make everyone feel good, had said it was definitely no problem and Sicheng could still come.

So, Yuta had invited himself along. 

He did not understand the appeal of cold neon lights and long hallways, that had the uncomfortable stench of bleach, but Sicheng seemed to feel right at home. So, of course, Yuta would do his best to feel just as at home.

“Why are there three of you going to the hospital?” Lucas asked, the spoon of the ice cream he was scooping into his mouth waving dangerously through the air.

“Well…” Taeil threw Sicheng a desperate glance.

“We have to ensure Taeil is fine.” Sicheng explained sincerely.

“And I wanna be with Sicheng.” Yuta added unabashedly. Dongyoung’s eye twitched. But he had tried to tell Yuta he was probably coming on too strong only two days ago and Yuta had happily spent the rest of the day reading out fake news until Dongyoung had begged him to stop. Quality bonding time.

Sicheng held still, when Yuta slipped his fingers between his, even curled his, and Yuta bathed in happiness over the small gesture of intimacy. 

 

The hospital was exactly how it had been the last two days and Yuta wanted to suggest going to the Nature Republic next door, but Sicheng looked excited to be here and it was simply too cute and precious, and Yuta would be damned to ruin this.

“So, guys, really, if you’re bored, just go home or something and text me. I’ll bring more blood, too.” Taeil assured, already equipped with his pager and fiddling with the first file of the day.

That was another thing, about having so many vampires. Not only were they short on space, but they also ripped through the blood bags Taeil, and sometimes Jaehyun, brought. They might have to look for another place to steal/buy it from soon, or they could start looking suspicious.

“Don’t worry, Taeil. We’ll do that.” Sicheng assured and Yuta hooked his chin over his shoulder. As long as Sicheng was there, he’d not get bored.

“Alright, you can make your own decisions, obviously. Have… fun?”

“Thanks.” Sicheng beamed “So, I thought it might be fun to wait in the ER today. I love trying to figure out what happened to people and I started getting better at smelling problems in people’s blood, too. I was there all the time before, because Taeil worked there. Since I don’t need to have a look on him all the time… we could go there, if you want?”

Yuta really didn’t care, but if Sicheng wanted to slightly creepily stare at strangers, who had a tummy ache or an axe through their arm – whatever people went to ER for, Yuta wasn’t sure, he had only seen it on TV, there people often came with axes – and figure out why exactly they had come there, Yuta was going to slightly creepily stare at Sicheng for eight hours. Sure thing!

 

Sicheng navigated the place with certainty and they quickly arrived at a big waiting hall. It didn’t look too different from all the other waiting areas Yuta had been in so far, only that it was, well, bigger.

Yuta sighed and pulled his face mask over his chin once they were settled in the corner. “There are no people with axes in any limbs.”

“Axes? Why…” Sicheng’s eyebrows rose, as he realised Yuta had been sort of serious. “They put them straight into surgery, that kills people!”

“Yeah, but in TV they come a lot. Anyway. Anything that interests you?” Yuta looked around. The people looked pretty much fine to him. Okay, some sniffled or looked a bit pale. But it wasn’t what TV had promised him. A let down.

“Hm, definitely, just came in.”

Yuta looked to the entrance. A boy with what looked like a towel around his hand had come inside, herded by an older guy, who looked about done with everything. Yuta’s nose twitched on its own accord, as the scent of blood wavered through the room towards them. Blood and wolf. 

“Looks just as good as an axe, I think.” Yuta shrugged, happy to get an interesting patient. The room was already quite crowded, so the two came towards them in search for a seat. 

Yuta saw the moment the two wolves picked up the scent of vampire. Both heads snapped away from the rows of seats and towards Sicheng and Yuta.

Yuta had gotten distracted by analysing the bleach job on the head of the boy, because that was a lot of orange… someone had to help the poor child!

“Uh, maybe we should move?” Yuta softly suggested, as the two boys kept staring at them, or at him specifically. They surely had seen vampires before, right? Not that any of the other patients paid them much attention, but it got quite long for a normal stare now and he didn’t want to risk them making a scene.

“They might be curious? Wolves try to be low-key, normally.” Sicheng squeezed Yuta’s hand. “Look, they’re coming.”

Yuta glanced at the red stain that slowly started building on the towel. Type A. Maybe he wanted to get someone to stop that bleeding, though.

“Yeah, probably?” Yuta sunk deeper into his chair, because their interest seemed to be on him, rather than Sicheng. He personally understood his face was very intriguing, but next to Sicheng? 

“You!” the bloodied towel was thrust his direction and Yuta couldn’t watch it anymore, slipping off his chair to push the hand back up.

“Put a bleeding at least at height of your heart, better higher, so you lose less blood, seriously, you look like the type to get hurt all the time, how do you not know that?” Yuta sighed and held the hand there, just to make sure. The boy stared at him, mouth agape, eyes wide. He was really cute, young, definitely younger than Donghyuck, with baby fat making his face soft and squishy.

“You’re getting that fixed, right?” Yuta asked, when the two boys kept staring wordlessly at him. He felt the need to hide behind his mask, but they were wolves, there was no reason to be scared.

The older one cleared his throat. His face was oval, with straight eyebrows that framed observant eyes. “Yes. We are. Our father’s doing the registration. Sorry, Woochul is an idiot. And he actually does get hurt a lot.”

“Hey!” the boy – Woochul apparently - pouted, turned and punched the older boy with his injured hand. He immediately let out a choked off sob from the pain. Yuta’s own hand darted forward to pull it up again. 

“Definitely an idiot.” The older sighed and looked back at Yuta, who still held the wolf’s hand. Just in case he wanted to punch more people.

“Were you looking for chairs?” Sicheng’s deep voice came from behind Yuta and he felt the faintest touch of a hand on the small of his back. Like his hand hovered there, not quite daring to touch.

“No! We were looking for him!” Woochul pointed his un-injured hand now. Yuta crossed his eyes to see the finger that was right in his face.

“How so?” Sicheng asked, voice taking a strained tone.

“Because we know him! You’re Yuta!” the older said and Yuta glanced around in a worry, but no one cared for them.

“And you know that why?” Sicheng asked, ever investigative and… maybe a little protective? Or was Yuta just projecting his hopes?

“Because our dad said if we were in huge trouble, we could ask him for help. Oh, and we searched through the boxes he keeps hidden in his office and found a photo.” Woochul explained happily and Yuta felt his blood run a little cold. “Mingyu-Hyung, do you have it? He has to know Dad, maybe they can catch up and drink coffee, or whatever adults do.”

The older pulled a wallet from his jeans and Yuta threw Sicheng a panicked glance. It was like someone had showered him in ice cold water and then congratulated him on winning a freezer, that’s how welcome this surprise felt.

“Well, terribly sorry, but we have to meet with our coven member, so I don’t think we have time for catch up.” Sicheng cut in and Yuta let go of Woochul’s towelled hand. 

“Right, we have to.”

“Aw, too bad.” Woochul pouted and he was really cute… 

The other guy had produced a photo and held it up. Yuta knew exactly which photo it was, the second he caught a glimpse. It was taken in Busan, during their one trip there, where the forest cleared and you could jump to your death in the ocean. At a time before front cameras made selfies look actually good. 

But that wasn’t the reason they had kept it. It wasn’t about good photography skills, because the picture radiated happiness. So, Yuta had gotten a copy of it and written his and Hansol’s name on the back and gifted it to him, which was probably how these boys knew it was him. 

“Yep, that’s… me.” Yuta forced a smile towards the boys.

“Great! Maybe you have time later, we could make dad get ice cream, I’m pretty sure.” Because Hansol had always been weak to puppy eyes and soft questions. Yuta knew and had made use of it often. And Woochul looked great at doing that, too.

“For now, you should focus on getting this stitched. I’m sure Yuta and your father can catch up another time.” Sicheng assured and steered a still stiff Yuta past the two. Mingyu, Yuta noticed, was tall, like Hansol.

Yuta felt a bit guilty at leaving the two boys standing, but he didn’t want to stick around and “catch up” with his ex. Really, he was still hurting from getting dumped, even if he had really cute sons now. He didn’t want to think about Hansol, especially not, when he had Sicheng by his side.

They quickly made their way out of the waiting room, back into the cold hallway. Yuta didn’t look for him. But he stood out, between people shorter than him. His hair was streaked with grey and Yuta almost forgot he didn’t want to see him and took a step towards him.

“Hey, Yuta, where are you going? Let’s go back to Taeil’s floor, okay?” Sicheng gently reminded and Yuta took the offered hand.

But like his ears were still attuned to the name, Hansol’s head snapped around and Yuta met his eyes, just for long enough to see the surprise in them. He turned, before he could see more, things that he didn’t want to see.

He followed Sicheng down the hall hurriedly, just fast enough they wouldn’t annoy the nurses and doctors that were walking up and down between rooms.

Sicheng didn’t head for Taeil’s floor, he headed down instead, outside and Yuta took a deep breath, when they stepped into the sun.

“Hey.” Sicheng softly asked, eyes searching Yuta’s face. “You good?”

Yuta breathed out slowly. “Yeah.”

“Hm.” He didn’t believe the lie. It was a bad one. Yuta would be disappointed if anyone believed it, but Sicheng could have pretended to swallow it. “Taeyong said you had to get ice cream in situations like these.”

“Did he?” Yuta chuckled weakly. It definitely sounded like something Taeyong would said and then go and get vanilla.

“Can you get some around here?” Sicheng looked around himself.

“I’m sure when we go down towards the subway we’ll find something.”

“We should do that. Right?”

“Yeah.”

Yuta didn’t let go of Sicheng’s hand, as they walked the pedestrians’ walk the way they had come from not too long ago to drop Taeil off. He tried to focus on the unevenness of the ground and how the sun made Sicheng’s hair look a lighter brown than it actually was.

“That was my ex.” Yuta softly said, when they had passed three shops in silence. Sicheng might not ask, but Yuta needed him to know.

“I guessed so. I think he wanted to follow you.”

“Now he does.” Yuta snorted. “Now it’s too late, because I’m very busy trying to get someone else to date me.”

“Who could that be?”

Yuta just attached himself to Sicheng’s arm with a death grip and rubbed his face against his shoulder. “I’m all yours.” He chirped, making the older chuckle.

“Was he the one who left you for his family?” Sicheng whispered, when Yuta stopped rubbing.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Because I’ve never heard a wolf breaking things off with their mate, maybe save for when there’s a loyalty that runs deeper.” Sicheng tried to push Yuta off his shoulder, but he was stuck like a leech and Sicheng didn’t really use all the strength he had but gave up quickly.

“What can I say? My bad luck is infamous. Maybe they could add that to the places where I get honourable mentions at? One of, like, three mates left by werewolves? My level of fame is growing.”

“For me, I’d consider it good luck, because like this I get to be with you. Oh! There’s a Basking Robins!”

Yuta had to hold onto Sicheng and let himself be dragged to the ice cream shop, because his head was busy processing Sicheng’s words.

 

When Sicheng and Yuta returned to the hospital to pick up Taeil, Yuta felt slightly sick and his brain might have frozen, because they had sat in the Baskin Robins for seven full hours and gotten one ice cream serving after another, letting it melt in their mouths.

The first part timer had given them very judging glances, the second one had stared with a dreamy expression and taken pictures on her phone, when she thought they weren’t watching. But Yuta hadn’t cared, as he felt his mood get better with every cup.

Taeil had a bag from Adidas in his hand, heavy with bags and bags of blood.

“Let’s hurry, this can’t get warm, people.” Yuta clapped his hands and they managed to flag down a taxi within five minutes in Seoul’s late evening traffic. Maybe, there was another streak of good luck starting…

 

“So, I found this really cute thing at Banila, look!”

Yuta screeched and threw the cherry blossom shampoo he had been holding. Sicheng caught it and looked apologetic. 

“I try to be louder, maybe you should shower quieter?” 

“How can I turn down the volume of the sound of water hitting the ground?” Yuta laughed, as Sicheng pulled the curtain close tightly behind himself. 

“Well, maybe turn the water lower? Or you should tell me whenever you go shower!”

“We don’t shower together all the time.” Yuta pushed Sicheng under the spray, while he massaged the shampoo into his hair. 

“Well, but we could.”

“We could?”

“Yes, because look! I found this! The girl at the shop assured me, that you used it to wash your body! It’s so cute and fluffy! A fluffy-shower-ball!” Sicheng waved a soft blue loofa. 

Yuta cooed and reached over to pinch Sicheng’s cheeks. He sputtered and spat out shampoo that still had been on Yuta’s hands. 

“This works similar to the towel.”

“So, it’s like a cute towel. I’m so glad I bought a lot.” Sicheng beamed and Yuta wondered if he had used money or not. It never got quite clear with most vampires. Yuta personally usually used bewitchment, because he was not usually working, even when he still could, and the rest of the coven stingy. “Can I try it on you?”

“You can try whatever you want on me.” Yuta winked and changed places with Sicheng to get under the water to wash out his hair.

He did not expect to suddenly be pushed against the wall, Sicheng’s lips on his.

Yuta grabbed the shower handle behind himself to steady himself, as Sicheng’s lips moved against his, then brought his other hand up to Sicheng’s jaw, making him angle his head a bit differently, opening his lips for Yuta to push his tongue in. He felt himself get riled up, as they moved their tongues against each other, though the tiles were cold against his back.

Unfortunately, Yuta lost his grip and slipped. As he tried to hold on, he turned the water to Siberia in winter temperature, before almost smashing onto the tiles unceremoniously. Almost, because Sicheng had quick reflexes and saved him from that fate, pulling him up by his arm. But that meant that he was right in the ice-cold water and Yuta screamed, before jumping out of the shower, hair still bubbly with shampoo. 

 

“Good morning.”

“Please spare me.”

“Aw, Dodo-Chan, what kind of greeting is that?” Yuta whined and slapped Dongyoung’s arse, just because Dongyoung kept saying he was definitely, totally straight, without doubt, but stared at Jungwoo’s bubble butt the whole last night, after Jungwoo had announced he was going to move in with Lucas and Dongyoung could have his room. Since no one really wanted to move from this place, it was a happy coincidence.

“Can you never call me that again?” Dongyoung took a deep breath to start one of his lectures “Dodos went extinct, because they were so… lame.”

“Wow, fits you perfectly then, doesn’t it?” Yuta gasped. “Anyway, Sicheng said he would be interested in getting his own glowing brick, so maybe, if he asks Taeil to buy one, could you show him how it works? I’d do it, but I think I need to sit in on the lesson, too. Lucas tried to explain the apps again last time, but it’s much too confusing.”

Dongyoung sighed deeply. “You mean a phone? He wants a phone?”

“He calls it glowing brick, so that’s what it shall be called from today on.”

Dongyoung rubbed his temples “It’s not like I have anything else to do, so why not?”

“Great, thanks, I’ll let him know.” Yuta beamed and twirled down the hallway. 

He had dreamt of getting dumped by Sicheng, because he had to put his family first, but when he had jerked awake, he found Sicheng on the mattress next to him in, fast asleep. He had wrapped himself tightly around him and gone back to sleep. Needless to say, he was in a brilliant mood. 

His plan to officially date Sicheng was coming along wonderfully. Slow, very small steps, those were the key. Unless Sicheng felt like pining him to the wall under the shower, that was out of his control and not part of the plan, but greatly appreciated. But also, unfortunately, hadn’t found a repetition. Yuta blamed himself and the temperature control.

He passed Ten’s room, where instead of the morning vibes for his stretching sessions, heavy breathing could be heard. Yuta was immune to it, the only one getting stiff as a pole was – unsurprisingly – Dongyoung and he hadn’t complained yet, as far as he knew. Ten and Johnny were really low-key, believe it or not. 

“Hey, Sichengie?” Yuta poked his head into his room. Sicheng looked up from… “Oh my god, are you reading One Piece?” 

“Uh? Is that okay? It was there, so I thought… you have the whole wall and you said it was a master piece, so I wondered.”

Yuta wanted to cry.

“Of course, it’s okay! But that’s volume 90, how about you start with 1? The story will be much, much clearer. Uh… and maybe we should look for the Chinese version.”

“Oh, it’s fine, written Japanese is easier than spoken.” Sicheng assured. Right. Colonialization, enforced speaking of Japanese in Korea, and by thus written Japanese, plus shared characters imported from – tada – China. Yuta felt himself melt into a puddle, ready to soak into the carpet under his feet.

“What did you initially come for, though?” Yuta recovered from his new wave of love and affection, remembering his original task.

“Dongyoung would help you with the glowing brick.”

Sicheng perked up and put the book aside. “Great! I’m so excited! Jaehyun showed me moved pictures two days ago, that was wonderful!”

Yuta smiled and leaned down to peck Sicheng on the lips. He could only do that in their own room, or he’d turn away and fight Yuta off. But when they were alone, Sicheng even cuddled back. Hand holding was the full extent that he’d indulge in in public.

 

Yuta had sat in on the lessons Dongyoung had so generously given and it was already paying off, as he launched on the sofa, while Sicheng was at the hospital with Taeil. Apparently, he had given the nurses at ER a helpful hint and now they were trying to convince him to do a training to join their team and to win him over, they kept giving him puzzling new patients.

Yuta had never expected stomach pain to be this interesting, but Sicheng’s re-telling of “chronic lower abdomen pain due to undiagnosed Endometriosis” because of “incompetent, predominantly male doctors” were actually thrilling.

Maybe, Lucas could fake Sicheng some documentation, like he had for Jaehyun, so he could get into the medical sector. Meanwhile, Yuta was still stuck at home.

At least, wasting time on YouTube was actually very, very easy. There were videos on everything Yuta could think of and, more importantly, what he couldn’t think of. Not to mention the tips on colouring hair. Yuta claimed himself to be quite the expert on that by now. Taeyong’s freshly hot pink dyed hair was walking proof of his capabilities. 

Taeyong had the strongest hair of the coven, no matter how many times Yuta went over it with aggressive dyes, it never fell out.

Yuta had just tapped another makeup tutorial by an American, which he didn’t understand the words of, but there was plenty of demonstration on what to do to avoid confusion, and wondered if he should go shopping at Etude House with Taeyong soon, when the door was flung open and Dongyoung returned from where Ten had sent him to pick up his flatting iron from said vampire.

“Ten!” Dongyoung screeched, but he diligently put away his shoes, before he stomped into the flat. The video could wait, while Yuta scrambled off the sofa with a soft giggle, to follow the agitated young vampire.

“Jaehyun said you have another two flatting irons and you set me up to go, because… you know? I’m not doing you favours again!”

“Aw, Dongyoungie, what could have happened to upset you so much?” Ten’s light voice chirped and Yuta ran through the options in his head. “Not to mention, I needed this one, specifically. So thank you for being a sweetheart.”

“Save the breath for someone who cares.” Dongyoung threw the flatting iron and Ten’s delighted cackle echoed through the hallway.

As the younger left for his room, Yuta slipped to stand in the frame.

“Aw, why are you bullying our poor Dodo-Chan? Did you set him up to get invited to fulfil Jaehyun’s voyeurism kink?” Yuta smirked.

“I said not to call me a Dodo!”

“I don’t need to hear about my sweet babys’ bedroom preferences, Yuta!”

Yuta bounced back into the living room with the feeling of accomplishment only being a true annoyance could give.

 

But no matter how much fun being with the other coven members was, nothing was quite like lying on his or Sicheng’s bed and either rant about something Yuta cared about, or listen to whatever scientific news Sicheng had picked up.

It felt like Yuta was centred and grounded, as the deep voice washed over him and he could freely play with Sicheng’s hair, or trace veins on his arms. Sometimes, Sicheng would draw patterns on Yuta’s arms with art supply pens and Yuta always hated having to go shower after that. 

“So, will you do the training?” Yuta asked, after Sicheng finished his case today, where a young boy had come with an allergic shock. Sicheng hadn’t even known allergies were a thing, but most diseases were news to him. Not caring about them for over 2,000 years gave viruses and bacteria plenty of time to develop.

Not to mention, how people were often just left undiagnosed even today.

“I don’t know. Taeil said it’d be fun.”

“So?”

“I’m worried I can’t keep up. There’s school, not only practical work, and even without becoming a doctor, there’s so much to read…” Sicheng mumbled.

“Because it’s in Korean, right?”

“Yeah. Hangeul are mean.”

Yuta hummed and circled a mole. “I could read it out to you, if you needed me to. Not that I have much things else to do, I finished the newest season of Pretty Cure already.”

Sicheng sat up, eyes wide.

“Really?”

Yuta shrugged. “I like to hear myself talk, you know.”

“That’d be so great! Thank you! 谢谢!” Sicheng wrapped himself around Yuta, who gasped, before he hugged back, giggling.

“Just tell me next time, when you need help. Let me take a bit of the weight you carry.” Yuta whispered against Sicheng’s shirt.

“But I don’t want to weight you down. If it means you’ll live with less worries, I can keep it to myself.” 

“Taking it off your shoulders often means to solve it. Like with this one.”

“Really?” Sicheng stared at him in wonder.

“Well, yes. I don’t mind reading to you, if you can stand listening to my voice.”

Sicheng stared at him in wonder.

“I never… realised that.”

“It’s never too late to.”

“Did I tell you, that you kept surprising me?”

“Maybe. It’s fine, I like hearing that I’m awesome.”

Sicheng smiled and leaned down to start kissing Yuta. It was a regular occurrence, which was why he no longer went into overdrive the moment Sicheng’s lips touched his, but could think about where to put his hands and how to make him sigh against his lips.

But today felt a bit different. Sicheng kept gently caressing the side of his face and kissed just a bit more hurriedly than normally. 

Yuta often got aroused, when they kissed for longer, but it went away, when they inevitably stopped.

Today, thought, Sicheng didn’t stop, instead, he started trailing down kisses over Yuta’s jaw, down his neck. He pushed his head back into the sheets, so Sicheng could reach easier. He felt his legs start to tingle a little, as his dick filled in and his fingers itched to pull Sicheng’s hips down to relief the pressure and get himself to full hardness.

But he didn’t quite dare, not wanting to push to where Sicheng wasn’t ready to go to yet.

With a wet noise, Sicheng pulled his lips from Yuta’s throat and stared down at him again, eyes dark.

“Is this fine? Are you uncomfortable?”

“God, this is far more than fine! Are you?”

“No, I just don’t want to push, you know, because you might not enjoy this?”

“Oh no, I do. As long as you don’t pin my wrists down, I enjoy everything.” Yuta quickly got that out of the way. 

Sicheng nodded and reconnected their mouths, but it was not much finesse now, just tongues clashing. Feeling bold, Yuta ran his hands down Sicheng’s sides and over his arse, before focussing on his front, that was bulging in the soft sweatpants. 

Yuta rubbed his hand over the outline and felt Sicheng’s dick harden under him. 

They had been around each other naked so much, there shouldn’t be anything that came as a surprise, but this was so different, it still sparked excitement in Yuta.

“Can these go?” he whispered, when Sicheng gave him a break from the kissing.

Sicheng answered by sitting up and pulling his shirt over his head unceremoniously. Yuta let his eyes travel over the expanse of muscle completely unabashedly. There was not a single blemish, he knew, only a small trail of hair that started from Sicheng’s navel and disappeared into his sweats.

Once satisfied with what he saw, Yuta got off where he was on his back and very dramatically and slowly unbuttoned his own shirt. He felt Sicheng’s eyes on his fingers, glancing at whatever skin got revealed whenever another one opened and the fabric fell open just a bit more. When the last one came undone, Yuta didn’t shrug it off, but continued with the ones on his jeans, trying to ignore the aching in his pants. 

Soon. But for now, he bathed in the thrill of winding Sicheng up. He didn’t miss how his fingers twitched but he waited for Yuta to finish. 

He raised himself on his knees and pushed his jeans, along with his pants, down, freeing his dick from getting squeezed in uncomfortable ways.

Yuta easily shook the fabric, that landed on the ground, leaving him in only his shirt. 

“What are we doing?” he asked, still on his knees, still aching for touch, but he needed to be clear, before going on.

“Whatever you want.”

“Hm. No. You need to be comfortable, too!”

“I’ll tell you if I don’t like it? But I think I’ll be fine with anything.”

“That works. Then…” Yuta let his eyes travel over Sicheng’s front, the sweat still straining. “How about you fuck me?”

Sicheng didn’t seem to shy away from that, which Yuta greatly appreciated. 

“Yes, please.”

“Great.” Yuta smirked and let himself drop on his hands, arching his back under the shirt. He turned to the night stand next to his bed, knowing fully well, that he was giving Sicheng a perfect view right now. He dug a little deeper, past the neutral lube he normally used, producing cherry flavoured one, that he had asked Jungwoo to order with his stuff not very long ago with the intention of using it for this. 

When he turned back around, Sicheng’s eyes remained focussed on where his arse had just been, snapping out of it a beat too late. 

“Want me to put on a show?” Yuta offered, happy to do that. But Sicheng shook his head and held out his hand.

“Let me make you feel good, please.” 

Without another word, Yuta shuffled over the bed and kneeled on Sicheng’s lap, leaning down to re-connect their lips, as he pushed the small bottle into his hand. 

The scent of artificial cherry immediately spread, when Sicheng clicked the cap open, but Yuta was busy mapping out the inside of Sicheng’s mouth to properly pay attention.

He hooked his arms over Sicheng’s shoulders, when he felt a finger circle his rim, so he could keep himself steady, as he relaxed his muscles how he knew perfectly how to.

Sicheng pushed inside, meeting little resistance. Yuta did this a lot, especially recently. Sicheng seemed to realise and Yuta was thankful he didn’t have to give instructions, as he added another finger by himself and started to thrust slowly, pushing against his walls at different angles, until he found the bundle of nerves he had been looking for, that made Yuta’s thighs jerk.

He didn’t need air, but he needed Sicheng’s mouth on his to keep from crying out loud. Yuta knew he was loud, Ten had made fun of that more than enough times. But right now, he didn’t want to hear himself, so he kept his mouth busy with other things, only soft moans passing his open lips. His fingers tangled in Sicheng’s hair, as he kept working him open in even strokes, giving his sweet spot just enough attention to keep Yuta’s body tingling, but not overwhelm him.

Sicheng scissored his fingers, until he was loose enough to add a third, the stretch feeling thick now, and making Yuta buzz in anticipation for more. He would have easily let himself fall over the edge and come, but he wanted to feel Sicheng inside, know themselves connected on the strongest physical level.

Sicheng twisted his fingers a little and Yuta dug his fingers into his scalp, as arousal flooded through his body, making his legs shaky. 

Yuta pulled away from where he muffled himself.

“Enough. That’s…” he grasped for words, that seemed impossibly difficult to find.

“Like this?” Sicheng asked, his thrusting had stopped and he pulled his fingers out, which allowed Yuta think more clearly.

“You have to decide.” Yuta just stated and smiled down. 

“Uh…” Sicheng looked a bit self-conscious now, his voice husky. “When you turn over, I can hit your good spot best.”

“Hm, true.” Yuta nodded and raised himself up. He had wondered, if Sicheng was the type to give deep stares. That would have been nice. Though for Yuta, this was pretty ideal, because he could just burry his head in the pillows and keep himself quiet.

And it definitely made getting the perfect angle easier.

“Wait, do you like that?” 

Yuta bend down and kissed him again, just a peck. “Yeah, I do, like I said, just leave my wrists free and I like it all.”

Sicheng groaned softly and Yuta turned himself around, positioning himself on his knees, butt up, and pulled a pillow into his arms. He felt Sicheng’s hands on his hips, the grip careful, like he was made from glass. 

Sicheng nudged against his entrance, before shuffling around a bit more.

“Okay?”

“Yeah.” Yuta said and bit down on the pillow just a second, before Sicheng pushed inside in a measured, but smooth thrust that had him see stars behind his eyelids.

The thickness was just right, the length just perfect, and how he dragged against his prostate was just pressing strong enough. He held still for a moment, before Yuta felt him start to carefully shift his lips a bit, providing minimal friction on his rim.

“Good?”

Yuta nodded, hoping he’d see, but of course he did. The moves got bigger, until he was pulling out almost all the way, pushing back in just on the side of carefully controlled. 

Like this, Yuta could probably last for hours, enjoying Sicheng fucking him slowly and sensually, so Yuta just focussed on the pleasure and the small huffs and tiny groans from Sicheng, while his own moans were mostly muffled. 

But after a bit, he felt himself become impatient. His orgasm was just too far out of reach like this.

“Sichengie? Go harder.” Yuta whined.

“Tell me when it’s too much.” Sicheng pressed out and Yuta nodded again. So, Sicheng picked the pace up. His thrusts got shorter, but more accentuated, as he pushed up his hips on the end of every stride, which made Yuta feel himself get taken from nicely pleasured to nearly overwhelmed within seconds, as his prostate got massaged. Every thrust send him forward on the mattress just a bit, only to be pulled back by Sicheng’s grip on his hips. His legs spread a bit further with every move, slowly giving out under him, but Sicheng adjusted the angle and when Yuta was flat on the mattress, his neglected dick getting rubbed over the sheets, he mercilessly fucked him right into it.

Behind the pillow, Yuta cried out with every thrust, gripping the pillowcase for dear life.

Yuta’s orgasm came almost violently, crashing over him, when Sicheng managed to hit his sweet spot just perfect, right on and even the pillow didn’t completely drain the sound of his scream, as his clenched down on Sicheng hard, body spazzing for a few seconds.

Sicheng slowed down immediately, gently fucking him through it, until Yuta felt all tension leave his muscle, just lying on the bed, every drag against his walls getting too much and Sicheng pulled out.

Yuta rolled over, so he could look at Sicheng, whose eyes were staring back intensely. He probably looked like a wreck right now, his hips ached and his butt was sore, tiredness weighing him down. But Sicheng’s dick was definitely still hard against his stomach, so Yuta pulled himself back up and pushed Sicheng back.

“Fuck my mouth.” Yuta rasped softly.

“You sure?” 

“Yes. I’ll tap your hip when I’m ready, double tap to stop.”

Sicheng threw his head back with a groan and Yuta bend over to take the tip of his dick in his mouth. The weight was comfortable on his tongue, almost too big to be nice, the perfect size. He relaxed his jaw and throat and swallowed Sicheng down, then tapped his hip.

Sicheng put his hands on the side of his face and stroked his fingers over his cheek, before he pulled him up a little, only to thrust back up into the warmth.

Without the feeling of getting suffocated, Yuta found this quite nice, not to mention he didn’t have to move a single muscle, as Sicheng handled that, pushing himself closer to his orgasm. 

He finally pulled Yuta off and wrapped his own hand around his dick, quickly jerking himself to completion.

Yuta blindly fumbled for tissues and they did the worst of the clean-up, before shuffling so they’d avoid the wet patch on the sheets. They passed out, Sicheng in Koala mode around Yuta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woochul and Mingyu (Hwi) are members of New Kidd, btw, the group which Hansol debuted in. Their family names are actually Shin and Jo. Seriously, it was so difficult to find someone to make his sons, because Hansol has pretty unique visuals PLUS he’s so tall. I watched their MVs like 100 times FOR SCIENCE and decided on whom I could somewhat make some comparisons to… And then Hwi has blood type 0, so he couldn’t even be Hansol’s son BUT WHATEVER HE STILL IS IN HERE.
> 
> Apparently, in old China, PDA was heavily frowned upon. Generally, Asia is much more private, whenever I was in South-Korea or China, I’ve never seen anyone do more than holding hands. Definitely no kissing, while it’s not really a big deal in Europe, happens all the time, everywhere, and Sicheng is SO Anti-skinship-Fanservice (unless it’s Mark lol), it’d seem reasonable to make him stiff here, too.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG, it's the epilogue

Yuta woke with the sun, as he usually did, feeling warmer than normal. After a moment of confusion, he found the reason for that being Sicheng wrapped around him, like normally he was around Sicheng. A smile spread on Yuta’s face, as he fished for his phone to look into the news on the App that Dongyoung had helped him figure out.

There was an article about crime in Seoul being at an all-time low, three months after the “Vampire murderer” had been “fond and arrested by Police Department Four”.

Kun’s mouth had twitched, when those news had come out and Dongyoung had shrugged and said they couldn’t very well report, that it had been Vampire Vigilantism, because that was illegal. 

Yuta eyed the sticky sheets and took a moment to recall the previous night, which made him feel all giggly again. The flat was still mostly quiet, save for Johnny’s snoring and Yuta went back to a half-awake, half-asleep state, that left his mind blissfully empty. He had to text Mina and Momo about his recent successes in the pursue of his love.

Eventually, the morning chiming music from Ten’s room woke Sicheng, who slowly peeled himself off Yuta and started stretching his limbs out.

“Good morning.” Yuta cracked the crick in his back. He was a bit sore, nothing dramatic, Yuta never get sore to the point where he couldn’t walk or would slump around.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” Sicheng asked, blinking one eye open.

“Like the dead.”

Sicheng giggled softly and leaned forward to press a kiss to Yuta’s cheek.

They got out of bed and Sicheng rushed over the hallway to his room without anyone seeing. Once dressed, Yuta made his way to the kitchen to make his traditional morning smoothie. 

“So…” Yuta turned from where he was cutting up bananas. “Kun’s new Chinese vampire regulars’ table kicks off tonight, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, I’m so excited! I hope many come. There’s only so few Chinese vampires in Seoul in the first place, I hope we can all catch up a bit. I heard there are some from Guangzhou, maybe they and Lucas could become friends.”

“What about Xi’an? Are there people from there?”

“I haven’t heard yet. But maybe. I don’t really mind, though, I’ve been to so many places, it’s enough for me to relate to all of them.”

“So, what about the day after… maybe, we could go on a date then?” Yuta asked, trying to seem nonchalant. He hadn’t brought that up again, ever since getting turned down, and he’d really hate to hear a no, but he was also living by the mindset of going for what he wanted.

Sicheng was staring at him with a thoughtful expression and Yuta didn’t dare breathe.

“Well, I think I have time, yes.”

Yuta hollered out a small victory chant and fell around Sicheng’s neck, slathering him in kisses over his cheek.

“It’ll be the best date ever! I’ll think of something extremely cool and romantic! It’ll be great.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” Sicheng’s eyes were widening, but Yuta wasn’t going to be stopped. He ran down the hallway towards Ten’s bedroom door.

“He said yes! Tennie! He said yes!” he yelled, before he flung the door open, finding his friend in pretzel position on the floor. His boyfriend was still snoring on the bed, naked, as Yuta absentmindedly noticed.

“Tennie! He agreed to go on a date! Sicheng!”

“Great. Congrats. Please close the door on your way out.” Ten sighed, but Yuta was already gone to announce the happy news to Dongyoung and then Taeil.

 

Yuta’s nightmares had disappeared to where they had been lingering for years before, as the constant feeling of happiness took over his mind. 

Sicheng sometimes woke up from his own, and Yuta had quickly attuned his senses to realising when he did, so he could assure him, that he was fine. Sometimes, Sicheng asked if it was really alright, sometimes, when Yuta pointed out handsome celebrities, he softly asked if Yuta wouldn’t be better off with them.

He always made sure to tell and show Sicheng just what he thought about that.

 

Then, there was Dongyoung and his… mysterious back pain. And Jungwoo suddenly sleeping over at their place, then Dongyoung suddenly sleeping over at Kun’s place, while Kun came to Ten’s flat, sighing deeply and taking the carpet in the living room for the night.

It was quite hilarious, if Yuta was being honest, especially when he thought he could hide it. Given the chance, even the most oblivious of the teenager-friends of Donghyuck, that had turned into parasitic guests, would figure this out.

 

Taeil was delighted to hear Sicheng had finally agreed to the training position after much consideration. Yuta found himself buried in books with complicated Latin in them, but with Sicheng attentively sitting to his side, scribbling down notes in the writing only he could read, Yuta didn’t mind trying to figure out how to pronounce them.

He also made a point of picking Sicheng up from his two days of practical, which were simply him doing what he had done before: helping out at the ER. It was no secret that 90% of the staff below the age of 40 were in love with him, and Yuta could understand them all too well. Sicheng was genuinely unaware of it, which made Yuta feel a bit sorry of them, but happier for himself because.

“What? Really? I didn’t notice, because I only have eyes for you.”

Said with dead serious eyes was enough to make Yuta giggle for three days straight, until Ten slapped him up the head for “Being annoying. More annoying than normally.”

It shouldn’t really be a surprise, that one day, Yuta saw two familiar figures come to the desk, while Sicheng was still finishing up with the last patient and Yuta just stood there to stare at him.

“Appa, I told you, I was being careful, I don’t even know how it happened.”

“I thought I had been clear, when I said that I didn’t want you around the kitchen knives.”

“But a potato peeler isn’t a knife, technically, and I was being careful.”

“And now suddenly your arm is missing pieces? Woochul, I’m going to ban you from the kitchen, if you don’t stop putting yourself into danger.”

“But Appa, the fridge is in the kitchen…”

“Then keep your fingers off anything sharp and ask you brother or sister to do it for you.”

Yuta eyed the stained towel and wondered how many of these the Ji household went through every week, or if they had perfected the art of washing blood out. Not too hot, not too short…

The nurse leaned over the desk, sighing, when she saw Woochul, greeting him by name and asking, how this had happened today, while Hansol handed over the insurance card. 

Due to the late hour, the waiting room was empty, so they immediately led Woochul into a treatment room. Yuta’s eyes found Sicheng, carefully writing something down on a chart. He had taken a bit to get a grasp on Hangeul and reading wasn’t quite fluent yet, but his writing had improved much. And everyone in the station was more than happy to let a few spelling mistakes slide for him.

“Yuta?”

Yuta snapped out of his musings and looked up. 

“Hansol.”

The silence was thick, as Hansol carefully looked him over, the affection in his eyes speaking volumes. 

“Are you living well?”

“Definitely.” Yuta answered, not having to think about it for a second, before he returned the question “Are you?”

“I am making it work.” Hansol took a deep breath and smiled. It wasn’t that bright, not how Yuta had known it. But it wasn’t sad. Maybe, it was just a mature smile, that of a person living in the second half of their lives, that had matured from life’s experiences?

Yuta would never live in the second half of his life and maybe, just maybe, that would have meant their relationship would have been doomed, anyway. They’d never know.

“You didn’t pass type B to any of your kids?” Yuta asked to lift the mood.

“I actually didn’t, they’re all salted pudding.” Hansol said, remembering the comparison Yuta had come up with decades ago.

“Gross. Did you teach Woochul how to press down on arteries? So he doesn’t accidentally bleed out one day?”

Hansol furrowed his brows “You can do that?”

“Of course you can. And should. Make sure to look it up and show him, okay? He’s too cute to bleed out.”

“Yeah, he’s quite adorable, isn’t he?” Hansol smiled in fatherly joy. And Yuta felt genuinely happy for him. The bitterness of getting left behind… it seemed to have started to fade. Like it got replaced by a new layer of happiness, that needed the space now.

“Yuta? I’m finished.” Sicheng called and Yuta pushed off the wall he was leaning against. He didn’t miss the stare the Chinese was directing at Hansol.

“Well, gotta go.”

Hansol nodded. “Goodbye.”

“Bye.” Yuta smiled, before he slipped past him and hopped towards Sicheng. 

They went in silence, until they were already at the subway station at home.

“You good?” Sicheng asked softly, as they moved towards the exit.

“Yeah. Pretty good actually.”

“That’s a relief.”

Yuta hooked their pinkies together.

“Like I said, sometimes, when you share your worries, they can just go away.” 

Sicheng hummed and didn’t reply, until they were almost on the door of the high-rise they lived at.

“So, wanna do something special, to celebrate disappearing worries?”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“Hm, maybe I found something interesting in one of your Mangas to try out.”

“Oh my god, which one did you read? Did you dig up my Yaoi collection?”

“Well you were asleep already and they were under the bed, so I didn’t have to leave you alone.” Sicheng blinked innocently, which made Yuta laugh uncontrollably. 

“Well, we can try, if it was anatomically possible positions.”

“That’s what the Tai Chi practice is for, isn’t it?” Sicheng airily pointed out, not looking at Yuta.

“What? I thought that had pure reasons?” Yuta cried, but couldn’t keep serious, as he started chasing Sicheng up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read this, special thanks for all comments and support, it really means so much. 
> 
> I honestly had no intention for this to get this dark and angsty (and long omg), but as my stories tend to, it just lived its own life in the Word document. Tbh, I don’t think the characterisation is quite consistent. Yuta was hard to grasp for me. I always have members from whose perspective I prefer to write, because it comes easier, but I have challenged myself to write a story from each of the members’ perspectives.
> 
> I really want to expand this universe further (because it’s not already complicated enough *cough*) and because I definitely want to write Kun POV in this. I hope we’ll get some quality Way V crack, which I can base use further spin-offs on. So far, I’ve seen Kun adopting Yangyang as his second child after Chenle and getting teased just as mercilessly by him, RIP.
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


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